Bionicle: Equestrian Saga Book 4 'Unholy Alliance'

by Nova_Blast

Chapters

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 13
• Chapter 14
• Chapter 15
• Chapter 16
• Chapter 17
• Chapter 18
• Chapter 19
• Chapter 20
• Chapter 21

Chapter 1

It is the earth year 2020, after the events of last year, all the parallel universes are merged into one multiverse, referred to as the ‘convergence-Multiverse’. All parallel Earths and Terras now orbit the same Solar system around a colossal Sun.

There currently exist three know political factions; The Sol System Alliance, made up of countless Earths and Terras, with the aim of keeping the peace. The Universal Conquest Alliance, led by Jul ‘Mdama’s Covenant, with the aim of taking the entirety of the Universe for themselves. And lastly, the Sol System peace keeping act, based on Terra-10, acting as the political mediators between the other two factions

*POV 1st Person Nova*

“…so as you are aware by now, the Embassy for Sangheili living on Terra requires additional funding” A Sangheili representative said. “if you could provide us with the funding then we would be most grateful” I was in my mid-day court where I handled the matters of extra-terrestrial species living in Equestria.

“Thank you, Zeeb ‘Rghee” I said, as twin tendrils of smoke drifting out of my nostrils a more recent development of my Alicorn form along with the constantly swirling, flame-like mane and tail “Your request will be considered and you will receive a letter of acceptance or denial in due course, that will be all”

“Thank you” Zeeb said, before turning and leaving. I absentmindedly petted Osiris, my pet Butterfly Cobra and a gift from Stag upon my Coronation, with my magic. Said serpent was currently coiled lazily next to the throne with his head held up. Not only did the serpent look beautiful, with his stunning, butterfly-like hood owing to the species’ name, but also he was extremely venomous, adding that little extra deterrent to anyone foolish enough to try and attack me. You call it insane; I call it a reasonable insurance policy.

He was large, about 2 meters, and whilst dangeroushe was biblically lazy most of the time. Also in the room with me was Aiden, my adoptive grandson who was also a Sangheili (Also known as an Elite), and had become my protégé of sorts: he would assist me as necessary, in return during quiet periods I would teach him more aspects of the English language and things such as our history. The next pony in the line stepped forward and I dreaded the coming conversation.

“Announcing Prince Blueblood; nephew of Princess Celestia” I groaned internally and I noticed Osiris hiss in annoyance before laying his head down and looking away from Blueblood. Aiden was also slightly nervous, I'd tried to keep my grandson out of family matters such as the ‘disagreement’ we had with blueblood, but the oh-so ‘humble’ (read as arrogant and selfish) prince made that very difficult at times.

“Your majesty” Blueblood said, bowing though he meant absolutely no respect.

“Speak quickly” I said “so those with more important matters can come forth”

“Oh but this is an important matter” he said, smirking “are we, or are we not, at war with the covenant and their allies?”

“Yes, we are at war” I said, narrowing my eyes at him. ‘you better not be going where I think you’re going with this’

“Well, I find it odd, seeing as we are at war” he said, turning to the other ponies in the room “that there is a surplus of species that are found in their alliance present in Canterlot” his eyes lingered on Aiden.

“Nephew” I said “My eyes are here, not down there” I then stood up and Osiris snapped to attention before following me as I walked down the steps of the throne.

“Allow me to make a few things absolutely clear, to all present in this room” I said “most so-called ‘alien’ individuals are not members of the U.C.A., true, some members of their species are, but that does not mean all. Another thing; most members of the aforementioned alliance are merely following orders and have no idea what is actually going on between them and us. Every alien individual I have had the pleasure of getting to know on a personal level have been very friendly, more so than you, Blueblood”

“But is it, or is it not also true that a Sangheili by the name of Raz ‘Vtam is a former member of the Covenant?” he asked.

“He left of his own choice” I said.

“And your bastard grandson of yours was found aboard a Covenant Vessel” my mane and tail flared and I turned to the gathered ponies.

“Get out” I said, they didn't need asking twice. I turned to Aiden before speaking in Sangheili “Anata ga hitsuyōna toki ni, watashi wa anata o shōkan shi, isshun no tame ni watashitachi o nokoshite kudasai [please leave us for a moment, I will summon you when you are needed]” Aiden quickly left the room followed by Osiris, and I rounded on Blueblood.

“You are very lucky that Aiden only knows fragments of Equestrian” I hissed “You come into the throne room during my court, start pressing a matter that you very well know is something to be discussed in private and to make matters worse you insult my family, adopted or not”

“I don’t see what the problem is” he said, not flinching “I was merely stating facts”

“You damn bloody well that where I come from bastard is a term used as a common insult” I said, “not just a term for someone born out of wedlock and so did most of the ponies present. Like it or not we are family and that makes those like Aiden your extended family. Either you accept that fact and stop being so sore over the fact that a ‘mere commoner’ has been elevated to helping to rule this nation. On the other hand, you stay the fuck away from my side of the family. I will keep this a private matter for just this once, but if it happens again, I will be telling Celestia. And don’t you even think of looking at my grandson on the way out. Now get out of my sight” he left rather quickly and I called for Aiden.

“What....that?” he asked, sitting next to me. I sighed before sitting on my haunches.

“Tadashī yōgodesu[The correct term is] ‘What was that about’” I said “Soshite, shinpaishinaidekudasai, sore wa anata o kinisuru hitsuyō ga ari, nani mo nakatta. Dono yō ni wareware wa shibarakunoaida, machi o sansaku shite iru ni tsuite?[And don’t worry, it was nothing that should concern you. How about we have a walk through the city for a while?]” Aiden smiled and began following me, joined soon after by Osiris who slithered by my side, standing as tall as Aiden. Thankfully he was tolerant enough of younger individuals, I’d made sure of that when Stag gave him to me. We then began to walk through streets of Canterlot, occasionally we were stopped by a curious foal who was fascinated by Osiris, who thankfully was rather patient (I swear, the snake was half-sapient). For most of the walk, I continued to bring Aiden up to speed on Equestria.

“Anata ga hontōni anata o hatsuon suru hitsuyō ga aru koto o oboete oite kudasai[Remember, you really need to enunciate your] ‘Ps’” I said in a kind but firm tone as we walked through a park. “Watashi ga mae ni anata ni itta to onajiyōni, issho ni anata no ago o tsuikyū shiyou to suru[try pursing your jaws together, just like I told you before]” Aiden thought for a moment before trying to pronounce the word.

“FFF…P…lease? Please” his eyes widened at the accomplishment.

“Anata ga soko ni iku[There you go]” I said

*POV 3rd Person*

Teridax walked along the hallways of some abandoned facility that had recently been discovered in the Everfree Forest. He was in new, gold and black armour and held a mighty Warhammer that crackled with purple energy in one hand. His mask was akin to a ram’s head and his purple eyes scanned the corridor. His size was now greatly reduced, only about 7 or 8 feet tall, he also had a power dampener on his back, something which would remain there until he was considered ‘reformed’.

Scrap and detritus were scattered around the corridor and Teridax stepped over a white panel, absent mindedly glancing at the robotic arm attached to the rear of the panel in puzzlement before walking through doorway and into a round atrium of some sort. Most of the ceiling was missing and plant life had started to overrun the place. In the center of the room was a mass of white metal and electronics strewn about the floor, with wires running from what was left of the ceiling

“Could it be?” Teridax asked himself, during his time under reformation he had had access to Human internet so he had learnt a few things about their culture. He searched the room for a switch and eventually found a large switch with the word ‘Main Circuit Breaker’ written above it. Teridax walked over and pushed the switch upward, lights flickered and the mass of metal in the center of the room convulsed before retracting and hanging from the ceiling. A single, pale orange light blinked on and focused on Teridax.

“What…are…you?” said a synthesised, female voice.

*a long while later*

“Unhand me you lunatic!” GLaDOS shouted as Teridax dragged her entire mechanical body through the streets towards Canterlot, much to the surprise of the citizens “You unhand me. Right. NOW! I have very delicate components, and you've got dirt in my servos from dragging up the mountain for three hours, three HOURS!!! Do you have any idea how much my components cost? They aren't cheap, you’ll end up broke and on the streets, and none of your friends will be there to help you, because you don't have any!” as she continued her very one sided argument, Teridax began dragging her up the stairs. The guards, who were more than used to this situation, merely rolled their eyes and let him past, only sparing a quick glance at GLaDOS.

For the past six months Teridax had been assigned as paranormal janitor of sorts; he’d go out and collect ‘objects’ like GLaDOS and then drag them to Canterlot, where they would then be teleported to a secure, highly classified containment facility on Terra-10.

*POV 1st person Nova*

I was sat in the throne room alongside Celestia helping to oversee her day court, Aiden had finished for the day and had gone back to our home. The court was interrupted by an almighty bang and a female voice shouting in protest.

“Unhand me the instance, you demonic lunatic!” the voice cried, I turned to Celestia.

“I’ll handle this” I said, she nodded and I signalled to Osiris as I stood up, the Rainbow Cobra shot after me before coiling loosely around my shoulders and withers and I quickly made my way out of the throne room. Once I entered the hallway I was met with the sight of Teridax hefting the form of GLaDOS over his shoulder as he dragged her through the hallways. “Again with showing paranormal items to everypony between here and Ponyville?” I asked, placing a sleep spell on GLaDOS.

“Sleep mode initiated” a voice said” and the light in GLaDOS’ eye faded.

“That actually worked?” I asked in surprise, I then shook my head to clear my thoughts before casting a teleport spell on the three of us.

We reappeared in the science lab of the castle, something that had been installed at my request.

“Usually, ones like her would be shipped off to Stag’s world” I said “but I have a way to put her to better use.

“You mean have her kill us all with deadly neurotoxin?” Teridax asked.

“Well someone’s been search up their memes,” I said. “But no, I was going to have her installed to help with the research division” I signalled to a group of scientists of various species and they quickly went to work mounting GLaDOS to the ceiling.

“Are you sure this will work?” a Vortixx asked.

“Sure” I said “just…don't take everything she says to heart” I then reversed the sleep spell and GLaDOS sputtered into life.

“Wh…where am I?” she asked.

“You’re in Equestria, on the Planet Terra-1” I said “I was wondering how you came to be on this planet” GLaDOS groaned.

“Oh, that imbecilic Turret!” she exclaimed “That stupid turret teleported my entire chamber off planet”

“Well, that would explain the transmission Earth-1 received last Christmas” I said, before levitating a tablet computer over to Glados and playing the Transmission.

“Oh great, he’s had them painted in festive colours” GLaDOS complained, she then noticed that we were still watching her “Alright, what do you want?”

“Those turrets have allied themselves with our enemies” I then pressed a button on a keyboard which began to upload information into GLaDOS. The war, Teridax, myself, everything, she now knew everything. “We were wondering if you could give us a hand in our science division” GLaDOS remained silent for a moment

“Good god” she said “what kind of backwards world have I been dumped on? Magic? Unicorns? I'm in a menagerie of Human mythology…I hate Humans; running about, polluting everything. Kind of ironic”

“What is?” I asked, she then swooped towards me.

“That you hate your own species, to the extent of always walking around in such an…interesting form” she said “And yet you insist on keeping them alive”

“I have my reasons” I said, scowling

“Oh I know, believe me, I know” she said before backing away. I swear, if she had a face she'd be smirking “but to get to the point, yes, I’ll help you. But once you've finished your petty war I'll be heading to the nearest planet, preferably uninhabited”

“Fine by me” I said, before walking away, Teridax began following.

“Forgive me for speaking out of term” he said “but what exactly did you think was going to happen by having her installed in the ceiling, did you think she was going to dish out compliments”

“You're still on reformation.” I warned before teleporting myself and Osiris away to my home. Calling it a house would be a slight understatement, it was actually a two story mansion that had been built not long after mine and Autumn’s coronation. It had influences from many different coulters from Equestrian to Gothic. Put simply, it looked fucking incredible. Every single member of my immediate family lived here; my Mum and Step-Dad need merely get a teleporter pad in our garage and they would be on Earth-1. I reappeared outside my home and quickly made my way inside.

“Guten tag” A female voice greeted.

“Good evening, Glück” I said. Not long after my coronation Autumn had talked to me about ‘expanding’ our family and she didn’t mean in the children sense. 6 month later Glück Bolzen was now a part of our herd and she'd adopted Polaris so the young filly was also a part of our family now. I nuzzled her before pulling away. “Where’s Autumn?”

“She’s in the study” she said, before rolling her eyes “Zat mare is going to vork herself to death if you don't have a vord vith her”

“You know you are free to have a word with her” I said, walking towards the study “you’re a part of this family and even though the rest of us are technically royalty, inside these walls everyone is equal; the maids, the butlers, myself, everyone. Why do you think I had the metal workers put my families’ new coat of arms with the words ‘ In hac familia, et curis magnis [In this family, all are equal]’ directly below?”

“It vould not be my place, vu-I mean Nova” she said, following after me “I am only new to your herd”

“My previous statement still stands” I said “and it’s our Herd” We entered the Study, it was a large room with an extensive library of not only written work containing things such as magical spells but also digital works contained on computers, It was through these computers that Autumn handled the logistics and management of the Terran Union Army. I looked over and tittered when I found her asleep with her head resting on the desk.

“I swear” I muttered, rolling my eyes “normally she might as well be a double of Rainbow dash, but stick her in front of a computer or book and she becomes Twilight Sparkle” I walked over and nuzzled her cheek, causing her to stir.

“You need to stop working so hard” I said, helping her up and putting my neck under hers to support her before leading her out of the room. “come on, I’ll help you to our room”

*POV 3rd Person*

*Location: Earth-1; The Middle East*

An RAF Super Hercules flew over countless sand dunes across a desert typical of the ones found in the area. Inside Minion, still in his human form, readied one of the new ‘Terran System’s Arcane Automatic Combat Rifles’ that he had been given for the upcoming mission; storm an ISIS stronghold and rescue all hostages. Meanwhile Vinyl, still in her Unicorn form, was sat in her seat wearing her usual combination of shades and headphones. Her eyes were closed and her head bobbed slightly to music only she could hear.

“So what’s your story?” One of the soldiers asked Minion.

“They didn't tell you before we came on the plane?” he asked, all of the gathered soldiers shook their heads “We are two of the Neu-Toa from the Wolfpack, I’m Minion and this is Vinyl Scratch” Vinyl’s hoof shot up briefly in some manner of greeting.

“Well, sir” the soldier said “I must say, it’s quite the honour to work alongside royalty”

“Technically we aren't royalty, that role falls to my brother and his wife” Minion said “myself and Vinyl are just nobility”

“All the same” the soldier said “It’s an honour to serve with two of the people that fought in the battle of London and two Neu-Toa at that”

“What’s your name, soldier?” Minion asked.

“Corporal Thompson, Sir” he said. at that moment the voice of the pilot spoke over the intercom.

“Alright men, we’re near the drop zone, get ready to drop” Minion tapped Vinyl on the shoulder, before standing up.

“Oh, come on, I was just getting to my favourite song” she complained, her Trottingham accent as clear as day. Despite her protests she stood up all the same.

“Do you two need some parachutes?” Corporal Thompson asked, Minion smirked.

“Nah, mate” he said “we do things our way” at that moment the rear door opened and as one both Minion and Vinyl shifted into their Neu-Toa forms, their armour gleamed in the middle-eastern sun as it peeked through the exit of the plane.

“Bloody hell, that’s quite that party trick” Corporal Thompson said.

“Comes with Being a Neu-Toa” Minion said, before jumping out of the plane, followed soon after by Vinyl and the Human soldiers.

Location: Inner Sol System asteroid belt

Most people imagine asteroid belts such as the Inner Asteroid Belt found between Mars and Jupiter to be jam packed with asteroids like a Detroit traffic jam. But up until recently this wasn't the case (how do you think the Voyager space probes were able to get past the asteroid belt so easily?). However, since the multiverses merged the two asteroid belts of the Solar system, the inner asteroid belt and the Kuiper Belt, had become very crowded. It had also been designated a neutral zone used for scientific and colonisation purposes; a number of small trading ports and scientific outposts had started to spring up on some of the larger asteroids. The former was often a place where shady deals were made on both sides of the war.

“I can’t vait to get back to Terra-1” Boris said, the Falcon turned Griffon was currently in his Neu-Toa form as was Scar, a Timberwolf given sapience. They had received word that the Skakdi were planning to join the U.C.A. and they were going to make sure that didn’t happen, the Skakdi were master weapons crafters and ruthless fighters to boot, if the S.S.A. lost the Skakdi's favour the results could be catastrophic.

“Then let’s be quick” Scar said as the pair of them walked through one of the many bars on this asteroid, keeping to edge so as not to draw too much attention “Remember, we need to look for an Ice Skakdi with a mechanical eye”

“That’s something you’d associate more with Matoran, not Skakdi” Boris said.

“All the more reason to look out for him” Scar said, after scanning the bar he found their target talking with a Sangheili minor “Here we go, you see him, at the bar talking with a Sangheili”

“I see him” Boris said. Scars claws began to extend and they began to approach. Boris walked up behind the Skakdi and tapped him on the shoulders. “Pehea e pā ana whakaoti tatou i teie waho [How about we finish this outside]”

“Anata mo, erīto[You too, Elite]” Scar said. The Elite begrudgingly nodded and they soon began to make their way out. Scar noticed the looks they were starting to get “S.S.A. Buisiness, go back to your drinks” once they were out of the bar Scar and Boris dragged the Elite and Skakdi into an alleyway. Boris handled the Skakdi whilst Scar handled the Elite.

“Sate sate, koko de kiku, kodomo[Alright, listen here, kid]” Scar growled, poking one of his wrist mounted Gatling guns at the Elite’s head. “Anata wa reisei ni kono roji no soto ni aruku shiyou to shite iru, anata ga modotte anata no fune ni iku to Skakdi ga dete hoshī koto o anata no jōshi o oshie shiyou to shite iru. Anata mo, watashitachi ga kuria sa rete iru watashitachi o mita koto ga nai?[You are going to walk out of this alleyway calmly, you are going to go back to your ship and tell your superiors that the Skakdi want out. you never even saw us, are we clear?]” the Elite gulped before nodding. Scar then shoved the Elite away. Meanwhile Boris was interrogating the Skakdi.

“Kāti, whakarongo mai, e haere koe ki te haere hoki ki o koutou Barraki, a ka e haere koe ki te korero ki a ratou e te UCA E hiahia e kore e. e kore a koutou. i kite. tatou. Capiche?[Okay, listen, you are going to go back to your warlords and you are going to tell them that the U.C.A. aren't interested. you never. saw. us. Capiche?]” the Skakdi nodded “pai, aianei whiwhi i roto i konei[Good, now get out of here]” Boris the shoved the Skakdi out of the alleyway.

“Well” Scar said “that was easy”

*POV 1st person Vuur Koning*

I was stood on the balcony with Celestia and Luna, the both of them were teaching me the spells for controlling the sun and moon in case something were to happen to them. Well, I say controlling the sun but in actual fact Celestia controls the rotation of the planet.

“Alright” Celestia said “you need to reach out with your magic you should feel a tug, then you need to pull, that will cause Terra to spin” I reached out as instructed and I soon felt my magic latch on to the sun and I began to pull. After no small amount of struggling the sun dipped below the horizon.

“There” I said, panting “I’d like to see you do better” suddenly the moon and sun began to dance across the sky at a rapid velocity.

“As the youth like to say;” Celestia said, smirking “’do you even lift, bro?’” Luna snorted and covered her mouth to stop herself laughing and I growled before looking away

“Shut it” i mumbled

Chapter 2

*POV 1st Person Vuur Koning*

I rounded the corner as a flurry of bullets whipped past me. I clutched the rifle in my hand before jumping around the corner guns blazing…only to get shot down and have the words ‘killed by TOOgood489’ to appear on the screen.

“Are you kidding me!?” I exclaimed, Luna shot me an apologetic glance, but didn’t say anything

“I swear I’ve heard your voice before” one of the other players said.

“It’s probably some dick with a sound board of that new prince faggot” I voice said, I scowled before looking at Luna, the two of us smirked, we were going to seriously fuck with this guy.

“Huzah!” Luna exclaimed as she shot down another opponent “How many points do I receive?”

“Fucking hell” another muttered “there are two of them”

“Two of what, fellow player?” Luna asked “were you incorrectly assuming that there were two players with these so called ‘sound boards’”

“Or, were you implying that there were two members of Equestrian Royalty?” I finished, the entire conversation went silent.

“…shit” one of the players said “how do we know that this is actually two of the Rulers of one of the many planets out there”

“Doth this answer your question?” another voice, a dead match for Luna’s said. “By the way, hail, Prince Nova!” guess the one from Stag’s planet was also here.

“Hey, Luna” Both myself and this Terra-1’s Luna said

“Holy shit, how many ponies have we got in this game anyhow?” another player asked.

“Yo!” at least half of the players said.

“I knew it, I’m surrounded by ponies” the player said “keep playing ponies”

*POV 3rd person*

Minion impacted the ground with an audible thud and enough force to kick up a cloud of dust and sand. Vinyl hit the ground soon after and pulled her rifle-sized concussion cannon out of hammer-space. Minion then then put his rifle away before pulling out his twin swords.

“This is the middle east, not middle ages” one of the soldiers said. Minion merely smirked before flicking his wrists, his swords acted like a power conductor for his Magnetism abilities and the rifle was ripped out of the soldiers grip. He then detached the clip from the gun before removing a single bullet and pointing it at the soldier

“I could launch the bullet at normal muzzle velocity and it wouldn’t even make a sound” he said before flicking his wrists again, the bullet, along with the gun and clip fell to the sand with barely a sound. “Show respect for the older forms of weaponry. Swords have been used for centuries, people only started using guns in the last century” he then walked up to the top of one of the dunes and activated his mask of X-ray vision. Immediately the lens began to filter out sunlight and highlighted a set of buildings, not too far away.

“I think I’ve found it” he said, before setting the image to display on the other soldiers HUDs

“I looked up on your file” Thompson said, walking over “about a year after you were displaced, ISIS started to build bases”

“So they’ve gone big?” Minion asked

“Went from a terrorist organisation to a full blown faction in months” Thompson said, scowling beneath his helmet “Let’s show those bastards what happens when they mess with us”

“By your command” Minion said. Soon the rest of the soldiers and Vinyl made their way up the top of the dune and as one, the group began to walk towards the base.

“Vinyl dear, if you would be so kind as to announce our arrival”  Minion said as they walked up to the entrance.

“With pleasure” she said, before aiming the canon and pulling the trigger. A series of lights lit up red, one after another until they were all lit, then they flashed green and energy coalesced in front of the barrel before firing with a deafening buzz. The beam hit the door, causing the surrounding wall to explode. The smoke cleared to reveal most of the wall to be missing, and multiple bodied scattered on the ground. “Knock knock”

“You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off” Minion said, before turning to the troops “you rescue the prisoners, we’ll provide a distraction”

Teridax walked through the Everfree forest on the trail on yet another object, only this time he wasn’t alone. A large, black dog with blood red eyes, ethereal blue flames covering the paws, and an almost reptilian tail, plodded along beside him

This dog was a hellhound; an infernal beast from the depths of hell used to guard the pit and Tartarus. They are intelligent to the point of Sapience and guard the more…high profile prisoners of the pit and Tartarus, beings like Tirek come to mind. This one, called Hecate, had become a companion for Teridax, and she was extremely skilled in tracking, especially good for the more mobile targets, like the one that they had been sent to find. All they knew about it was it was fast, practically invisible, and was responsible for the deaths of a small group of ponies.

Up above, something watched the two of them as they walked through the forest, it could sense the heartbeat of one of them, but it could only detect the footsteps of the other. It began clicking as it began to zero in on them.

Teridax stopped moving and Hecate perked up.

“Do you hear that?” he asked and the Hellhound nodded, they heard a snarl and Teridax turned just in time to grab the creature by its neck. It was large, about the size of a human, and really thin and lanky, it had a bulbous head and a set of nasty teeth “well aren’t you the ugly one” he then cast his sleeping powers on it before hefting it over his shoulder. He then turned to Hecate.

“let’s go”

*POV 1st Person Prince Nova*

I was in the study with Autumn, Ruby and Garnet, the latter was with his daughter of only a few months old, named Alexina. A young foal…hatchling? Okay, we didn’t know the correct term as she was a brand new species, the first ever Kirin-Atquean hybrid; officially and scientifically ladled as a Quirian. Anyway, she was a small thing, and her entire body was covered in metallic scales, red on the body and fading to green at the end of her legs and tail, she had a small tuft of mane running along her neck, whilst a set of small spines continued past the neck and reached all the way down her tail, she had also inherited her dad’s tail and wings.

I was reading a book on advanced spells when a butler walked in.

“Excuse me, Sir” he said “but there is someone at the door, a dragon by the name of ‘Drakorex’” both Ruby and Garnet froze up solid whilst going several shads paler, and in the following silence you could hear a speck of dust touch the ground.

“Tell him I’ll be through soon” I said, the Butler bowed quickly before exiting the room. I then looked at the two Kirins “is something wrong?” eventually Ruby found her voice.

“Quite the opposite” Ruby said, beginning to smile “when we were young, before we ended up in that slavers camp, there was one individual that was like a father to us; his name was Drakorex. Last we saw him he was heading off to pastures new and he’d promised to visit us again, but certain…events got in the way of that”

“So he was your father figure when you were young” I said, they nodded. I stood up “I’ll go talk to him”

“We’re coming with you, no way are we missing out on this” Ruby said. I then left the Study, followed by Autumn, Ruby and finally Garnet, who was holding Alexina in one arm. I soon reached the door before motioning for Ruby and Garnet to wait whilst Autumn and myself carried on. We opened the door and stepped out to see a medium sized dragon of about 25ft, he had emerald scales with gold spines, but other than that, he was your average looking dragon.

“Are you Prince Nova?” he asked, and my heart skipped a beat. He sounded…exactly…like my Dad did, not similar, a dead fucking match. You could have him provide the voice for silent footage of my dad and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

“Yes” I managed to say, Autumn shot me a look and I shook my head to clear my thoughts “Yes, I am Prince Nova, would I be correct in assuming you are Drakorex?”

“Yes” he said “might I enquire as to where Ruby and Garnet might be?”

“They’re just inside” I said “just to warn you though, whilst they have been under my care they got hurt, the ones that caused it have been…dealt with, but still I ask that you withhold any ire towards me until we have a moment away from them” he frowned, but nodded all the same. I then looked back “you can come out now” the two Kirins walked outside and the moment they laid eyes upon the Dragon they stopped dead in their tracks.

“We’ll give you three a moment” Autumn said, before quickly pulling me away and behind a tree “what the heck was with that look when he spoke? I know you more personally than anyone else on this planet and I’ve never seen you so spooked before”

“He sounds exactly like my dad” I said, sitting on my haunches, immediately her expression softened “so it’s like he’s been reincarnated as a dragon” she nuzzled me comfortingly.

“Don’t worry” she said.

“I’m not, I’m just spooked the fuck out” I said, as I rested my neck on hers “I can’t let him go. If he goes, then it would be like losing my dad all over again”

“Then let him reconnect with them”  she said.

“But will he want to know me?” I asked “if I allowed ‘that’ to happen” she suddenly pulled away and looked me dead in the eyes.

“Listen, what happened to them was not your fault” she said “don’t let anyone tell you otherwise” she then kissed me before stepping back “Come on, let’s see how they are doing” we then began walking over and just as we got close to them Drakorex grabbed me by the neck before launching into the air and landing on the summit of Canterlot Mountain.

“Care to explain to me why they are missing an arm and an eye?” he snarled, pinning me to the ground with enough force to cause a small crater. I teleported behind him before sending a shooting a blast at his back.

“You have a fucking problem with me?” I asked “Then fucking bring it!”

“I won’t fight you” He said “but I am still infuriated that you would allow them to get so badly injured. They were practically my own children, I helped to raise them alongside their mother, gods’ rest her soul”

“I’ll admit, I screwed up when I was unable to protect them” I said “but would you rather I kept them locked inside to keep them from all harm, or let them run free?” he kept silent and I continued “You weren’t there when that bastard changeling cut off Garnet’s arm, I watched the blood flow out of him and I thought I’d lose him at that moment, I’d barely earned his acceptance as his adoptive father and I thought he was going to die in my arms” I stopped when I realised the ground was smouldering slightly and I sighed before sitting down.

“I feel guilt every time I see their injuries” I said tiredly “I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to protect them, if it is your wish to take them and protect them, then I won’t stop you” he chuckled quietly before patting me on the shoulder.

“I would not resort to such measures, young one” he said “true, you are young enough to practically be their older brother, but you care for them like any father, they told me that much, this only proved it” I shot him a questioning look and he chuckled nervously.

“In dragon coulter, it is common place to test and individual that is coming into your family” he said “You’re lucky all I needed to see was how much you truly care about Ruby and Garnet, and not how good you are in a fight”

“You consider me family?” I asked in surprise.

“More or less” he said “I noticed that when you first heard me speak you looked as if you’d seen a ghost, care to explane?”

“You sound exactly like my late father” I said, he quirked an eyebrow “I mean, you’re a dead match, if I heard you without seeing you, I’d have thought you were my Dad”

“Interesting” he said.

“Well” I said, standing up “let’s get back to the mansion, I’m sure Ruby and Garnet have lots to tell you about our journey up to this point”

*POV 3rd Person*

An ISIS soldier cautiously walked through a dark section of the base, clutching a rifle. Behind the soldier, a mechanical hand flexed in anticipation and a light dawned on the back of the soldier, who turned around just in time to be launched across the room with his rifle firing blindly into the air. Around the corner three other soldiers saw the first soldier go flying past from left to right and promptly opened fire, they emptied their clips before one of the soldiers turned to another and said something in Arabic. The same light from before lit up the soldiers and they turned just in time for two of the soldiers to be launched against the left and right-hand walls. The third opened fire, only for the bullets to bounce harmlessly off of Minion’s armour, who took a couple of steps forward before punching the soldier in the chest, knocking the rifle out of his hands and the soldier onto the floor, out cold.

Minion straightened up before continuing down corridor of the base, against an oncoming volley of bullets, which only served to create sparks as they pinged off his armour. One of the soldiers ran forward, only to be launched into a wall to one side. Another soldier ran forward and Minion retaliated with a full force punch to the chest, sending the soldier flying down the corridor. He than walked to a crossroads and brought his arm up just in time to clothesline another soldier.

He began to calmly walk after multiple fleeing soldiers, his footsteps echoed through the corridors with a rhythmic ‘thump-thump-thump-thump’. The soldiers came to a large set of metal doors and they closed it, leaving one soldier trapped on the other side. They could hear his screams, which were abruptly silenced by a loud bang against the metal doors.

*BANG* one of the doors dented slightly

*BANG* the door dented even more, and one of the soldiers said something in Arabic before fleeing, followed soon after by his fellow terrorists, two of them were two slow and were promptly ploughed over by the doors as they flew off there hinges. As Minion walked to a T-junction, he attempted to clothesline another soldier only to embed his arm in the concrete wall as the soldier ducked to avoid him. Whilst Minion attempted to free himself from the wall, a soldier with a hand gun approached and aimed at Minions mask before pulling the trigger. The bullet ricocheted off and embedded itself in the man’s skull, quickly putting and end to his life. Minion slowly turned his head and raised an eyebrow at the dead soldier before ripping his arm out and demolishing a portion of the wall in the process.

He continued on his way, walking after the soldiers before coming to an opening, outside the opening was a court, filled with equipment and vehicles, where a number of soldiers were arming themselves with machineguns. They heard the stomping footsteps of the Neu-Toa and readied their weapons.

*thump…thump…thump…thump…thump* the soldiers looked at the Neu-Toa uneasily as he came into view *Thump…THUMP….THUMP…THUMP-THUMP* Minion stopped at the top of the stairs one foot in front of the other. One of the soldiers shouted an order and the rest opened fire, immediately Minion put his hands up to stop the flow of bullets. After a while the soldiers stopped and looked at Minion in confusion, he then smirked.

“My turn” he said, before launching them right back at the Soldiers, who promptly collapsed to the ground, dead. He then focussed his attention on all the equipment and the air around him started to ripple, eventually every tank, gun and car was reduced to a single metal cube the size of a large rubbish lorry. He then began to walk away from the base as the section behind him exploded.

Vinyl was with the British soldiers as they approached the area where some of the terrorists were holding the hostages at gunpoint.

“What do you suggest we do?” Thompson asked. Vinyl smirked before pulling out her bass cannon

“Leave this to me” she said, before plates on her back armour began to shift and a small jet pack appeared. She then launched into the air before landing in to middle of the square where the hostages were located. She impacted the ground with a thud and stood up to her full height. Her expression contorted into rage as one of the soldiers near her opened fire on her, she took a step forward before punching the soldier onto the roof of a nearby building.

“Holding people that can’t even defend themselves at gunpoint?” she asked, “Not cool” she then brought her bass cannon to bare, activated her mask of sonar and turned before firing at a soldier, sending him through a wall, she then turned again before firing at another soldier, sending him flying into a lorry. She then turned once more and fired at another soldier, sending him crashing over some ammo crates. She turned and went to fire again, only to stop when she was greeted with the sight of the last of the soldiers, holding the hostages at gunpoint whilst shouting in Arabic, she understood body language enough to know that that meant back off. She lowered her rifle and pressed a button. Her HUD lit up and began singling out the soldiers from the civilians. A few seconds later a series of shots rang out as multiple snipers tool out the last of the soldiers. One of the former hostages looked at Vinyl in awe as she walked past with fire in her eyes.

Inside a nearby building, a senior soldier tried to contact command on a phone, only for a grey, robotic arm to punch through the wall right next to him and pull him out through said wall. Vinyl then began to drag the man behind her by the collar of his coat.

“Have mercy” he said.

“Mercy‽ That’s horseshit coming from the likes of you!” she snapped “You’re lucky the British army wants you alive for information or I wouldn’t even show you a hint of bucking mercy!” she then dropped him at the feet of British soldiers and Thompson nodded his thanks.

“let’s get these people home” he said.

Chapter 3

*POV 1st Person Vuur Koning*

I was in the throne room, discussing the matter regarding Ruby and Garnet with Drakorex and Celestia when Teridax threw the doors open carrying something over his shoulder, he walked over and promptly dropped an unconscious Future predator at my hooves, causing me to give the most unmanly shriek before hiding behind Celestia.

“What the fuck, Teridax‽” I exclaimed. “Get that thing out of here”

“What is it?” Celestia asked.

“A future predator” I said, noticing their clueless faces I sighed before walking out from behind Celestia. I then levitated the creature up “this is what bats become in the far, far, far future. Its echolocation is so advanced that it does’nt even bother growing eyes, it’s also about as smart as your average Human and possesses rudimentary camouflage abilities.

“I was tempted to let it go free, it is a marvellous creature” Teridax said, smirking.

“It shouldn’t even exist” I said “Oh well, let’s send it off to WPC, they’re going to have a field day. At that moment Stag walked in, he was scheduled to meet with us over political matters, and he must have arrived early. He took one look at the future predator and his eyes lit up with recognition.

“Ah, a Clicker” he said.

“What?” I asked “you mean they actually exist on your world?”

“Well, yeah” he said, buzzing his wings “Why, don’t they on this world?” Both myself and Celestia shook our heads.

“Anyway” I said “Teridax, if you would be so kind as to send that down to be sent off to the WPC” Teridax nodded before picking up the ‘Clicker’ and walking out.

“So” Stag said “How’s the situation with your country going” I sighed and Drakorex looked at me in confusion.

“Do you have a problem with them?” he asked.

*5 months earlier*

I was sat at a large desk with Celestia and Luna, doing an interview on television to try to get the people of Britain more welcoming of us.

“What will your involvement in UK politics be?” someone asked.

“Strictly neutral” I said “though I was born in this country, I’m now a prince of Equestria, so it wouldn’t be my place to interfere” someone else stood up.

“As a former citizen of the UK, what is your stance on UKIP” I raised an eyebrow before answering.

“I am mildly Autistic and one of my adoptive daughters is a lesbian” I said “I cannot, in my right mind, condone a party that is not only blatantly racist, but wants disabled babies to be aborted, and the NHS to spend money on ‘curing’ homosexuality. Equestria is a country that upholds the values of love and tolerance, whereas UKIP is a group that promotes prejudice, racism and homophobia. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the last time a group that upholds those kinds of values got into power of a country, Earth ended up in the second world war” the gasps rang out through the room before the entire room went silent besides the camera shutters.

“Next question” I said. someone else stood up.

“You say Equestria promotes ‘love and tolerance’, yet Equestria is one of the leading countries on this side of the upcoming war”

“Need I remind you of the Battle of London?” I asked, “It is not a case of a need to fight, unlike many Earth civilisations. It is case of, we have to fight or we will all die at the hands of the enemy alliance, they will not stop until everything that opposes their image of the universe is wiped clean from existence. Next question”

“What is your religious stand point?” someone asked.

“I sense that this will cause no small amount of controversy” I said “but for an Alicorn, that’s the species that I now identify myself as, it is pointless to believe in a religion, as some Alicorns fit the classic criteria of a God, not so much a deity as a God. They have immense power; due to the off-balanced rotation of Terra-1 and its moon, my sisters; Celestia and Luna, control the rotation of Terra-1 and the orbit of the moon respectively. So to identify as any one particular religion would be purely self-serving”

“But you’ve already said when previously asked about the matter that your supposed mother, an Alicorn by the name of Fantasia, is classed as an Equestrian Diety, and is the subject of outright worship from Equestrians. So wouldn’t your current statement mean that you are technically following the Equestrian religion. Either that or your saying that she is not a what is classed as a god”

“Watch thy tongue” Luna said, frowning “That is mine and my sister’s birth mother you are referring to. Nevertheless, to answer your question yes, she is a god, and a Deity with the power to create things on a whim, regardless of whether you believe that or not, we have witnessed such powers first hand. However, following the Religion that revolves around our mother serves us as much purpose as your Queen’s sons referring to your Queen as ‘your majesty’ all the time it’s pointless and gets tiring on both sides extremely quickly”

“Besides” I said “Why should I let my beliefs rule my rational thinking? You shouldn’t judge someone based solely on their beliefs”

“They didn’t take to kindly to your remarks regarding UKIP” Celestia said, Drakorex chuckled.

“No” he said “I imagine they wouldn’t”

*POV 3rd person*

Minion was in the study, in his recently acquired Unicorn form; he was large for a unicorn; able to look Big Mackintosh dead in the eye and was covered in dark grey fur, he also had a guitar cutie mark and finally black mane & tail with orange tips. He was looking into Equestrian Folklore and he was just reading up on a page regarding Alicorns when the butler walked in.

“Excuse me sir” the butler said said “but there are two ponies at the door wishing to speak to either you or Vinyl Scratch.

“Thank you” Minion said, nodding as he stood up. He walked to the door and opened it before immediately putting on the most convincing fake smile he could muster in the face of the last two ponies he wanted to converse with: Vinyl’s parents.

“Can I help you?” He asked.

“Is Vinyl Scratch or her freak of a husband here?” Vinyl’s mother asked. She was a light grey mare with a dark blue mane and about as dull as upper class ponies came, just like Vinyl’s father; a stallion with a white coat and grey hair. ‘dull ponies with dull personalities

“You’re talking to her ‘freak of a husband’ right now” he said, smiling through gritted teeth. They didn’t even bat an eye at the revalation.

“Wonderful” Vinyl’s mother said “we was wondering if we could speak with Vinyl, we wish to reconcile with her”

“That’s nice” Minion said “Unfortunately, she’s not in at the moment and I don’t think she will be wanting to talk to you”

“But she owes it to us” she said “we helped her find her hooves in society and we deserve at least some of her fame directed”

“That’s nice” Minion said ‘Bitch, she doesn’t owe you anything’

“Out of curiosity” Vinyl’s father said “What did you receive from Vinyl for your wedding”

“Elocution lessons” Minion said. Vinyl’s mother burst out laughing.

“Well they obviously didn’t work” she said.

“Actually they did” he said, pulling a shit-eating grin “I used to say ‘fuck off’, but now I say ‘that’s nice’” he then watched with no small amount of satisfaction as their looks contorted from that of haughtiness to utter shock and he waved before closing the door.

“I love it when I win” he said, smirking as he walked away from the door with a noticeable spring in his step.

*Meanwhile*

Ruby was sat at a work desk tinkering with a smallish metal object, it was roughly spherical shaped, about the size of a basketball, and made out of metal, on one side it had a single lens, whilst beneath that was a magical thruster of some manner. Thel walked in and stopped when she caught sight of what Ruby was doing.

“Uh…what are you doing?” she asked, walking over.

“You know in Sci-fi video games and movies you get those little A.I. spheres?” Ruby asked, Thel nodded, but still looked puzzled  “well I’m trying my hand at making one, it will use a standard construct spell to provide the intelligence and personality, but it will still be an A.I. Sphere” the lens lit up briefly and Ruby smiled. “Looks like it’s just about ready” she then charged up the required spell and cast it on the sphere, which glowed briefly before levitating of its own accord. As it settled into a steady hover, the lens lit up in a blue light.

Inside a set of impossible ancient ruins located deep in the Everfree Forest, laid the still form of a tall, biomechanical gold and blue being, its armour tarnished and cracked in multiple places. It wore a large, fierce looking, golden mask with wide, blade or fin-like cheek plates. Suddenly its eyes, which hadn’t been used in thousands, no, millions of years, began to flicker until the being inhaled and its eyes settled into a steady red glow. The being sat up from the ruins it was laid in and looked around in confusion before asking himself.

“Hea tatou?[Where are we?]”

Fluttershy walked through the Everfree forest, singing quietly to herself. She was out collecting herbs and she’d just walked into a clearing when she began to hear thudding footsteps approaching. She was rendered frozen with fear as a gigantic bipedal being stomped towards her. She regained her senses only to leap out of the way to avoid being trodden on, she dare not make a sound as she hid in the bushes for fear of being attacked by the being attacked, yes, she had received combat training, but she wouldn’t risk her life against something that huge.

“Oh dear” she whispered, before gritting her teeth and shutting her eyes in an attempt to find enough courage to go back and warn Ponyville “pull yourself together, Fluttershy. Ponies could be hurt.” She inhaled deeply before opening her eyes, a fire of determination in her eyes. She then turned and began to dash back towards Ponyville before opening her wings and taking off.

A short while later Fluttershy’s hooves impacted the ground outside Twilight’s Castle and maintained her speed as she galloped up the steps and through the castle doors. She kept going until she burst into the throne room.

“Fluttershy‽” Twilight asked in surprise as the butter-yellow pegasus slid to a halt in front of Twilight “What’s wrong‽”

“Ever…free…collecting…herbs…monster….Ponyville” Fluttershy responded, panting.

“Whoa, slow down, Fluttershy!” Twilight exclaimed “Calm down” Fluttershy took a couple of deep breaths before sighing.

“We don’t have much time, Twilight” Fluttershy said, her voice was calm but it had a noticeable sense of urgency “I was out collecting herbs when a massive being walked past in the direction of Ponyville”

“What‽” Twilight exclaimed, she turned to one of her honour guard; a white unicorn with purple armour embedded with magic-enhancing gems. “summon the trackers!!!” the guard nodded and teleported out of the room.

The Trackers are three individuals, part of the Wolfpack but not Neu-Toa, as their name suggests, they specials in hunting and tracking. Gelphana; a fleet footed Glatorian with a skill for heavy weapons. Talguda; a pugnacious and stubborn fire-tribe Agori. And finally Raz ‘Vtam; a Sangheili who specialised as a long range sniper.

The guard reappeared at their outpost, startling them. Gelphana pointed his plasma cannon at the guard on instinct, before lowering it.

“Bloody hell!” He exclaimed, his Horstralian accent apparent as he put his canon away “give a Glatorian a warning next time”

“Something is approaching Ponyville, Princess Twilight wants your help to defend the town.

“Your Princes wants our help?” Talguda asked in a Scoltish accent, walking towards the guard and looking him dead in the eyes, causing said guard to swallow nervously.

“It seems” Raz said, sharpening an ornamental knife before holstering it on a sheaf on his chest armour “our allies require our assistance once more, l say we show the element’s how it’s done”

*POV 1st person Nova*

I was walking through the hallways of Canterlot castle when I noticed a human family, two parents; a mother and a father, and one little girl, about five years of age. I trotted over and greeted them.

“Good day” I said, nodding slightly, they were rendered stunned and I chuckled softly.

“I…uh…good…dzień?” the father asked in a Slavic accent.

“Się masz Polski?[are you Polish?]” I asked and they nodded. To dobrze, mogę tylko o prowadzenie rozmowy w języku polskim[That's fine, I can just about hold a conversation in Polish]”

“ Dziękujemy[Thank you]” the father said in surprise “Nie spodziewalismy nikogo tutaj aby zrozumieć nas[We were not expecting anyone here to understand us]”

“Mam do reprezentacji wielu różnych kultur, to pomaga jeśli mogę mówić co najmniej niektóre z języków. The Thestrals od Trotselvania również mówić polski[I have to represent many different cultures, it helps if i can speak at least some of the languages. The Thestrals of Trotselvania also speak Polish]” I said “Skąd jesteś?[Where are you from?]”

“ Wrocław” the mother said and my eyes widened.

“Ia odwiedziliśmy Wrocławiu w 2013 Roku[I visited Wrocław in 2013]” I said, the little girl beamed and I turned to the parents Chcesz zrobić zdjęcie z mnie i Twojej małej dziewczynki?[Do you want to take a picture of me and your little girl?]” the girls eye’s went wide and she looked at her parents hopefully.

“Tylko, czy to przycisk OK z tobą[Only if it’s ok with you]” the mother said unsurely, getting out a camera all the same. The girl walked over to me and I surprised her by levitating her onto my back. The mother took the picture and suddenly one of Twilight’s honour guard appeared.

“Prince Nova” the guard said, bowing “A threat is approaching Ponyville and Twilight has requested you help in case things get out of hand” I sighed and nodded before turning to the family.

“Obawiam się, że musimy cięte ten krótki[I'm afraid that we have to cut this short]” I said, levitating the girl down to the ground and ruffling her hair before nudging her back towards her parents “Mam nadzieję, że cieszyć się wakacjami[I hope you enjoy your vacation] The parents nodded and the child waved as I turned and began walking alongside the guard.

“How much time do we have?” I asked.

“There’s still enough time to get there via teleportation” the guard said.

“Good” I said, before teleporting us both away. We reappeared in Ponyville to find the Mane 6, along with Twilight’s honour guard and the trackers at the bridge just before the Everfree forest.

“Hello, niece of mine” I said, walking up to Twilight and giving her a quick hug.

“The greetings will have to wait” she said, hugging me back before stepping away. At that moment, a loud thumping filled the air and I noticed Pinkie Pie pull out a glass of water from her mane before placing it on the ground and staring at the ripples rolling across the water’s surface in anticipation. I rolled my eyes and quickly turned into my Neu-Toa form before getting my swords out and charging them up. Suddenly a 15-foot tall being stomped out of the forest, double bladed sword in hand, and stared at us in surprise.

“well…shit” I muttered

Chapter 4

I stepped forward before anything had a chance to kick off.

“Don’t attack” I ordered, Putting my swords away “He’s an ally”

“What‽ Are you serious‽” Rainbow Dash exclaimed “Just look at him! He practically screams evil!” I ignored her comment and continued to walk forward.

“Brutaka, ka taea e mahino kiate koe ki ahau?[Brutaka, can you understand me?]” I asked, the titan nodded “E kore matou e mea ana koe i tetahi kino, e karapotia ana koe e te ōna uku[We don't intend you any harm, you are surrounded by allies]”

“He aha i tupu i konei? titiro tatou a tawhio noa, ka kite i karapotia ia tatou iho e ... Rahi?[What has happened here? we look around and see ourselves surrounded by...Rahi?]”

“Ka katoa e Ua faataa i roto wa e e tika ai[All shall be explained in due time]” I said, before changing back into my Alicorn form and beckoning with a wing “Haere mai, kua puta ke te rota talu mei whakamutunga ia koutou haere i tenei ao[Come, a lot has changed since you last walked this world]”

*POV 3rd Person*

*Location: Terra-1’s orbit*

Above the Northern Continent a Covenant flagship lurked, ready to attack. On the bridge, the shipmaster sat on his command chair. His form was almost entirely hidden in shadow, but a single, mechanical hand could be seen as it tapped on the arm of the chair with a slow t-tink…t-tink. An Elite minor walked in and stopped before the shipmaster before bowing nervously.

“Shipmaster” the minor said “the troops are ready for your order to attack”

“Excelent” the shipmaster said with a rasping, grating metallic tone, and a pair of glowing red eyes narrowed “send in the second in command, I shall be going down into battle…personally” the minor nodded before quickly exiting the bridge.

“Soon” he said quietly “I shall get my revenge for the pain and suffering you have caused me…Prince Nova” his eyes flashed briefly.

*POV 1st Person Nova*

I was sat in the study of Twilight’s caste with the Mane Six Brutaka, bringing the latter up to speed on all that had changed, I’d cast a ‘learn a language’ spell on him, it allowed him to speak a language for a month, and by that time his mind would have made the pathways to speak it fluently without aid.

“So, he said “this world is still Spherus Magna?” I nodded, I was in my Alicorn form at the moment, and levitating a small cup of tea in front of me.

“Yes, though it is now known as Terra-1” I said “when you are ready to move on, I can arrange for you to be sent to New Altero, you will be among your old friends there.” Suddenly a hologram on the table next to us activated to reveal Vastus in some kind of trouble and was fighting off something out of shot, something large.

“Nova!” he called “we need your team down here now. The Covenant, they…they’ve sent something, it looks like an elite…but it fights like noting I’ve seen before…*gasp* oh no, NO! AAAH!” suddenly a beam hit him and he fell out of view.

“Vastus” I called “Vastus, do you read me?”

*POV 3rd person*

A mechanical being stepped towards the dead body of the jungle tribe Glatorian and picked up the hologram. The being looked like a Sangheili, was roughly 11 foot tall and it’s mechanical form, which was almost skeletal and noticeably of Cyberman design, was encased in blood red armour of typical Covenant design.

“Who is this?” Nova asked

“Come to New Altero if you wish to avenge your fallen comrade, Neu-toa” the being said “I, Taag ‘Ngreeda, eagerly await your arrival, Prince Nova”

*POV 1st person Nova*

“What is that‽” Rainbow Dash asked in shock as I froze the hologram.

“Nothing good” I said, my mane flaring with anger “he killed one of my friends and who knows how many else, I will end him, personally” I then stood up and began to leave, before stopping and turning to Brutaka.

“Are you coming?” I asked, he nodded before standing up. As I left the study, I switched into my Neu-Toa form.

I walked into the palace alongside Brutaka, Celestia’s eyes went wide when she gazed upon the massive being.

“Who is that, brother?” she asked

“Not important right now” I said, getting out the hologram and chucking it at Celestia’s hooves “this is” the hologram activated, replaying the previous transmission.

“This is troubling” she said “we need to get as many forces to New Altero”

“No” I said, “that would be the worst thing to do, it happened at Talvisota”

“Where?” Brutaka asked.

“I explain later” I said “The native forces managed to split up the Russian invaders, making the easier to defeat, a medium sized fleet will be all that’s required, say 15 ships?”

“Very well” Celestia said.

“Good” I said “we’ll tell my team to pack up and head to the Jörmun…”

“Not this time, Nova” It was not Celestia who spoke, but Luna “That ship is partway through a refit, and practically in pieces”

“So a new ship then?” I asked. Luna nodded, before Teleporting myself and Brutaka out of the throne room. We reappeared at a dry dock, where the sight of a sleek, ironclad warship greeted us. It reminded me of the angular armour of German tanks and boats of WW2, the turrets themselves were practically giant German tank turrets.

“Behold!” Luna said, spreading her wings “The Defiance, the first Terran Interstellar battleship, designed for exploratory purposes. We were going to be presenting it to you after it had performed its test flights, but this will have to do. Nova…this is your own, personal battleship, consider it a late Coronation present”

“Are you serious‽” I asked in surprise “this is my very own battle ship?” Luna nodded.

“Of course, it’s nowhere near the scale of the Jörmungandr” She said “1000 feet in length, 50 feet across, 200 feet tall, 10 main guns plus twenty automatic support guns, crew of 500 required to operate, but it can comfortable hold a crew of close to 800 or more. It even has an experimental cloaking device and the UNSC’s latest in slip-space technology”

“I…I don’t know what to say” I said, leaning against the metal railing and staring up in wonder at the ship “Because ‘thank you’ doesn’t even begin to cut it.

“Just go show those Covenant what happens when they attack our allies” she said. Brutaka stepped towards the railing and looked in wonder at the ship.

“Are we truly in the age where beings travel the stars?” He asked “like one would travel to another country?”

“Almost” Luna said “Nova here will be travelling to new worlds beyond this star, rallying new worlds to our cause, what say you join him and his allies?”

“We think that sounds like a great idea” he said, smirking.

*One hour later*

Myself and all of my team were on the bridge of the ship, waiting for it to depart.

“This place is awesome” Autumn said, practically gushing.

“This entire ship is yours?” Minion asked “not ‘yours but if the navy needs it you have to give it to them’ but yours-yours?”

“Yep” I said “and after this battle we’re off exploring other stars”

“What‽” the others all exclaimed

“We need to rally more allies to our cause”

“What about the kids?” Vinyl asked, I deadpanned in response.

“Wow” I said “do you honestly think we would go mother knows how many hundreds of light years away without bringing the kids?” Vinyl chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of her neck.

“Never mind” she said. At that moment Glück walked over.

“Nova” She said, “all crew are on board and ve are ready to depart”

“Take her away, Captain Glück” I said. I felt the entire ship shift as it began to rise and leave the dry dock, with that taken care of I began to explore. After a while I found a room directly below my quarters at the back of the ship. “What’s in here?” I then opened the door and gasped. Inside was a massive pipe organ.

“You have got to be kidding me” I said, trotting over and staring at it in wonder, the keys were made of the finest material, and it had multiple different levels of keys.

“I seem to recall you took up learning the Piano during your first year in Equestria” I heard Luna say. “and you developed quite the skill during the times you weren’t off chasing your foes”

“Shouldn’t you be in Canterlot?” I asked.

“I thought I would help you in New Altero” She said, trotting over “this is an Alicorn pipe organ, modified from the design of the one in the Everfree castle” I hummed in remembrance.

“That one was a beauty” I said, Luna then pressed a key on the lowest level, producing the sound of an ordinary piano.

“The first level is that of a standard grand piano” she said, before moving her hoof up one level and pressing another key, this time it produced a deep, bass driven sound, like that in a pipe organ found in a cathedral. “Second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth, seventh and eighth are pipe organs, ninth and tenth are keyboards. Why don’t you play something, give it a try?” I smiled and sat down

“Okay” I said “nothing too lengthy” my fiery mane began to expand across the keys. What most people did not know was an Alicorn has so much raw magic that if it was always contained they would end up destroying themselves, the whole ‘astral mane’ thing is actually their excess magic venting off, so an Alicorn can play instruments with their mane like a unicorn does using their magic. I then began to fiddle with the settings on the keyboards and Organ stops until I was happy with the settings. I then began to play a song, both sad and dramatic, it then quietened down before I brought it up to a crescendo and began pouring as much emotion into it as I could. By the time I had finished the song I was panting slightly and I could feel tears in my eyes. I heard applause from behind me and turned to see Brutaka stood, leaning against the door.

“Quite an impressive musical arraignment” he said “Unlike any we have heard before”

“I’m not surprised” I said “It’s from my planet, composed for a…how can I best describe it to you...sort of like a play, that’s literally the only way you can understand it”

“Are you saying we are simple compared to you?” he asked.

“No” I said flatly, standing up “it would take too long to properly explain the concept of television. I’d have to actually show you rather then tell you and I don’t have the equipment”

“Something you never explained to us” Brutaka said “why do you almost always walk around in that form when you have a Toa form as well”

“Multiple reasons” I said “but the two most important ones are I feel more comfortable walking around in this form and that it’s my way of accepting my true heritage”

“Anyway, your friend tells us the ship is approaching the destination” he said, I blinked in surprise.

“that was quick” I said, Luna smirked.

“She’s quite an impressive ship, isn’t she?” she asked.

“She travelled a good portion of the continent in just 30 minutes” I said “that’s beyond impressive”

“Only the best for my baby brother” she said, smirking.

“Please” I whined “not in front of the millennia old titan”

Soon we were nearing the great City of the Spherus Magnans, the most notable thing was the countless covenant ships.

“I promise you this” I said to Luna, who was in her battle armour. “I will make the Sangheili responsible for this pay dearly” I then opened my wings and leapt right off the edge of the ship before pulling my wings into a dive, Luna followed close after me. One thing to note, when I became an Alicorn, I gained wings like those on a Peregrine Falcon, so I was unbelievably fast in a dive. I rolled to avoid a banshee before turning and sending a beam of offensive magic at it, destroying it in one hit. I then refocused my attention on diving as fast as I could. I approached the ground and began to level out until I was flying through the streets at an incredible pace, my HUD highlighting on a minimap where the earlier transmission had come from and I pushed myself faster and faster.

“Nova!” Luna called “Slow down!” I ignored her and kept going, soon we came across a crashed airship surrounded by Covenant and myself and Luna soon obliterated them before I dived into the airship. I saw Taag ‘Ngreeda holding up a pegasus mare and my instincts kicked in, just as I slammed into the Elite I turned into my Neu-Toa form and used my magic to put the Pegasus on the ground.

“Guten Taag” I said, drawing my swords. The Sangheili chuckled.

“Your plays on words will get you nowhere, Neu-Toa” He said “You will all fall, just like your Spherus Magnan friends”

“Who the hell are you, to hold such a vendetta against me?” I asked “I’ve never even met you”

“Why do you think I am in this form?” He asked “You might remember the two frigates that you destroyed single handily in a blind rage, I was the Shipmaster on the second one, fate should have allowed me to die among the wreckage. But the Forerunners were smiling on me that day and I survived to be recovered by my fellow Covenant, but at a price. Almost all of my body had been destroyed and I was bed ridden until the Covenant allied with a race of cyborgs, allowing me to walk again, I vowed that day I would stop at nothing until there were no Neu-Toa left, starting with you!” He suddenly grabbed some things from his legs and his arms began to split before he activated four Sangheili Energy swords, albeit heavily modified with much longer blades and ornate hilts “Attack, Prince Nova” I got into a fighting stance. And he began to unleash a barrage of attacks on me.

“An alien…cyborg…with four arms?” I asked, dodging and blocking attacks “With a personal…vendetta against ‘X’ race of warriors…now…where have I seen that before?” I then saw an opportunity and kicked him away. Taag chuckled.

“I took cues from your culture, human” he said, behind his blank, metal face I was sure what was left of his face was smirking. Suddenly a bolt of blue magic slammed into him, sending him flying into a wall where scrap metal buried him.

“Brother” I heard Luna say, I turned to see her levitating multiple Spherus Magnans above her head “We must make our escape immediately” I nodded and melted the metal holding the Elite together, forming a makeshift cage.

“That should hold him” I said, before dashing out of the airship. A Dragon dropship landed in the clearing and the rest of my team stepped out “Don’t bother, we need to move these civilians away from here”

“Right” Scar said, rolling his eyes before making way for us. I walked into the dropship, followed closely by a red Unicorn with a black mane, who was carrying a green Pegasus with a white mane and tail. And a Po-matoran with a mask of X-ray vision. Luna walked in carrying roughly four Glatorian, four Toa and a strange being, whose species I was unsure of, but was definitely a Spherus Magnan. Suddenly Covenant began to surround the place the rest of my team quickly filed back onto the Dropship and Scar laid down suppressing fire as we took off.

*POV 3rd Person*

Inside the airship the impromptu cage of metal groaned slightly, before being ripped apart by Taag. He let out a roar of rage, which was distorted by his robotic voice.

“Toa scum!” He growled, before kicking away a large piece of metal away, embedding it in a wall in the process. He walked out into the square here he was met by an Elite Zealot.

“Shipmaster” the Zealot said “we have taken a portion of the city, but our forces are being pushed back”

“Order a retreat, we’ve achieved what I set out to do” Taag said.

“Yes sir” the Zealot said, saluting him.

Brutaka plunged his blade into the side of a building to slow his descent before landing in the streets with a thud, cracking the already battle-scarred pavement below him.

“Tremble before us, Covenant!” He roared, running after a small patrol  No less the four Hunters charged towards him before opening fire, he deftly blocked their fuel rods with a flick of his mighty blade before his hidden blades flicked out from his back and came into contact in front of him, sending out a red beam which quickly destroyed two of the hunters. He then grabbed another and ripped it in two before launching the lifeless corpse down the street.

“Piece of Prototin” he said, grabbing the last and pinning it under his foot before pressing down hard, cracking the armour and squashing the worms inside, what remained twitched and spasmed before going still. A massive blast sent him stumbling and he turned to see a wraith “All too easy” he then brought out his hidden blades again, sending out another laser, which quickly destroyed the tank. He then stomped over to a lone Elite minor, before leaning down and getting close to the Elite’s face

“Boo” he said flatly, a puddle formed beneath the Elite, who promptly feinted.

*POV 1st person Nova*

“I was stood in the cockpit next to Glück, when a transmission came in.

“The Covenant are retreating! We’ve done it!” a voice called, I sighed with relief.

“It’s over” I said, thankfully. I suddenly heard a commotion in the back.

“Don’t you ever do that to me again!” I heard a female voice I didn’t recognise shout. I walked into the fuselage to see Luna talking with the green Pegasus from earlier.

“I apologise” Luna said calmly “we simply didn’t have time to deal with your thrashing about”

“Then why didn’t you just leave me down there with Da'alrega?” The pegasus asked.

“Uh, Thunder” the Unicorn said nervously “it’s not the best idea to anger her”

“For your information I brought your fallen friend with us” Luna said “And it seems you aren’t familiar with who we are, I will ask you only once to show a level of respect”

“I am perfectly familiar with who you are, ‘Princess’ Luna” the pegasus spat “And to be perfectly honest, you were never there when I needed you, so fuck you and your country!” the entire dropship went silent and the air became so tense you could cut a knife with it. I stomped forward and grabbed the little brat by the scruff of the neck before opening the rear door and holding her over the edge. She went pale when she saw how high up we were.

“Why don’t you say that one more time?” I asked “you know, I would be perfectly happy to just let you fall to your demise. But I’m feeling a little sympathetic, we’ve all lost loved ones in this fucking war. And don’t you ever fucking think otherwise. Without people like us, this city would be nothing but glass by now. So buck the fuck up, shut the fuck up and wait until we’re somewhere safe to start grieving” I then stepped back into the fuselage and shut the door before dropping her on the ground and walking back to the cockpit in a huff.

Chapter 5

*POV 1st person Nova*

The dropship flew through the skies towards a nearby hospital, I glanced behind me towards the two ponies and I felt a pang of sympathy towards the Pegasus. Perhaps I’d been too harsh on her, probably best if I apologised to her when we touched down. Luna trotted over.

“I think you might have been just a little too brash with your actions” she said.

“I know” I said, sighing.

“I asked their Matoran friend, and it turns out that the pegasi’s parents were explorers who were exploring the southern continent” Luna said “they were ambushed by Bone Hunters and she was the only one to survive, apparently this Da’alrega was like a father-figure to her” I immediately took back everything I’d said to her.

“Dammit” I muttered “Now I feel guilty for being too harsh on her”

“However” Luna said “I spoke with the two of them and the pegasi apologised for her actions” she then chuckled.

“What?” I asked.

“Seems they are inadvertently following in your footsteps” she said.

“What do you mean?” I asked in confusion.

“They are planning to explore the southern lands” she said, a knowing smile on her face.

“I should probably give them a heads up” I said. The dropship banked and began to slow into a hover above the Hospital courtyard before descending. As soon as the rear door opened paramedics rushed in with stretchers before carrying out the injured Spherus Magnans and travellers fallen friend out. I noticed the two ponies and the Po-Matoran walking out and I walked after them “Hey, wait up a sec!” the Unicorn stopped and turned.

“Yes?” He asked in a Trottingham accent.

“Just…tell your friend I’m sorry” I said “and for what it’s worth, I know exactly what she’s going through”

“Sure” he said. I then grabbed four books out of my hammerspace and passed them to him.

“three of those are accounts of my adventures, the first one you should pay close attention to as it follows my journey down south” I said “the fourth book is a guide book I wrote, it’s just tips to do with traveling and if you were to get into a fight, I originally wrote it for Neu-Toa like myself but you should find it an interesting read none the less. Consider it my apology gift, anyway, I have to get back, your friend has my condolences and I wish you all luck on your travels”

“Thank you” he said, I then walked back towards the Dropship.

“Done?” Autumn asked, I nodded.

“The Spherus Magnans should be able to sort the city out in due time” I said as the rear door closed and we took off “We have more pressing matters to attend to”

“Indeed” Luna said “Our first order of business is a trip to the Pit, then Tartarus”

“Might I ask why we would need to go there?” I asked.

“If we were to get Sombra on our side” Luna said “his tactical knowledge will prove vital”

“So we have to reform Sombra” I said “and Tartarus?”

“That will be slightly more tricky” She said. “We have to convince Lord Tirek to join our cause” the entire dropship went silent.

“Sister” I said after sometime “Are you sure it’s the best idea letting him loose?”

“Why do you think Teridax will be joining us?” she asked.

“This could turn into a battle between gods very quickly” Minion warned as we returned to the ship and was greeted by the sight of Brutaka stood looking down on Teridax with his arms crossed.

“I must have been gone a long time, if you are now no taller than a mere Toa” he taunted, smirking at the Makuta, who simply growled before stomping past the titan with enough force to dent the floor, whilst his Hellhound bitch skulked behind him.

“Do you mind damaging the floor on my new ship‽” I asked as he stomped past, I sighed in exasperation once they were out of sight “I swear, one minute he’s the wisest being on the planet, the next he’s like a moody teenager”

“It comes with immortality” Luna said “It tends to make you…moody at times” soon the ship left and we only had a few minutes journey to the Pit, located in a costal bay to the east of Spherus Magna. Soon myself, Luna and Teridax, plus Brutaka and Hecate for that extra protection, began to enter the Pit. We were stopped at a security check, where metal constructs similar to Promethean knights stood guard, they soon let us through and we began to descend through the corridors. I noted the sign on one of the doors and shivered; Seth and Gabe. Those two were nasty pieces of work. I heard a voice chuckle, one I would rather not hear anytime soon.

“Hello, Vuur Koning” Seth sneered, looking through the window on the door. I gestured for the rest to go on ahead.

“It’s Nova now” I said, crossing my arms “Prince Nova”

“What brings you down here to this wonderful place” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Sombra’s getting reformed” I said “not that it matters to you, you’re never seeing the light of day ever again”

“Incorrect” Gabe said, I noticed he was chucking a tennis ball at the wall and waiting for it to rebound before repeating the process “they let us up into the courtyard on weekends, the other inmates are such wonderful guests. Tell Vapaa we said ‘hello’ when you get the chance” I then left them to whatever it is they do and sprinted to catch up with the others.

“Friends of yours?” Brutaka asked.

“They were hardly obeying my command when we I was waging war against the princesses” Terdax said.

“Which is why they have an eternal sentence, Sombra on the other hand” I said, as we came to Sombra’s cell. I walked up to the door to the cell and called out “Sombra!”

“Why have you summoned me?” he asked, materialising out of shadow.

“We have a mission for you” I said “Do as I say, and prove that you can be reformed, and you walk away a free stallion”

“Anything else?” he asked.

“Those our only conditions” I said “we are to leave this planet soon, in search of new allies to rally to our cause, we want you to come with us”

“I take it the war isn’t going too well” he said, smirking.

“No” I said “we just want to tip the balance in our favour”

“What happens if I refuse?” he asked.

“You stay here” I said “those are your options; take it or leave it”

“Tempting” He mused, tapping his chin in thought “on the one hand, I spend all of eternity in this cell, or I get to walk the stars, albeit you will be watching my every move”

“Not every move” I countered “you’ll have some freedom”

“But not much?” he guessed, before shrugging “it’s not like I have anything to lose” I then stepped aside and he sauntered past

“Gain my trust, and I may come to call you my ally” I added before stepping outside.

“Don’t even think of trying anything” Luna threatened, walking beside Sombra as we led him out of the Pit.

“I don’t believe you’ve introduced me to your companions” Sombra queried.

“You’ve already met Teridax” I replied, gesturing to the diminished Makuta “Brutaka is a member of the Order of Mata Nui, and you don’t want too piss him off” I noticed Sombra went decidedly quiet until we reached the ship.

“I see you have a different ship” Sombra noted.

“My personal ship” I corrected “So don’t even think of pulling any stunts” soon we entered the ship and after sometime we reached Tartarus, myself, Luna, Sombra, Teridax and Brutaka began to make our way to the gates. The heat seemed to be affecting Luna somewhat, where as I used it as an opportunity to absorb more power, soon my armour began to glow and the temperature dropped by 20 degrees.

“Thank you, brother” she said, sighing in relief.

“Brother?” Sombra asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Turns out Fantasia is my mother” I replied, Sombra went pale. “I’m also part Alicorn” I shifted into my Alicorn form to prove the point.

“How do I know you aren’t just using a mask of illusions?” he challenged.

“Clever” I chuckled “but no, if it was a Mahiki my head would be glowing like a lamp” I promptly shifted back to my Neu-Toa form without breaking stride.

“So you now have three forms?” he asked.

“Technically, yes” I responded, before frowning “though I don’t use my Human form unless I’m around my birth parents or on Earth”

“Might I ask why?” he pushed, twirling a hoof to tell me to continue.

“in short” I answered “because Humans will accept any help they can get without question, then the moment the danger’s passed they will turn on their allies, don’t believe me? We save a town from Hordika Dragons and the moment they fled all the town’s people formed a mob around us saying we were too dangerous”

“Calm yourself, brother” Luna warned, glancing down and behind me, I turned and noticed I was leaving small pools of lava in my wake.

“You powers are emotionally driven” Sombra noted.

“Sort of, they also affect my emotions, ever since I became a Neu-Toa I’ve been quick-tempered and I’ve been more…” I trailed off, trying to find the words.

“Rude? Confrontational? Moody? Hot-headed?” Teridax supplied.

“The last three work” I agreed, shrugging. Soon we reached the gates where Cerberus was stood on guard and I noticed Sombra was grinning nervously as we approached the three-headed dog “Feel free to hang back”

“No thanks” he replied as Cerberus stepped aside to let us passed. Soon we reached the cage Tirek was imprisoned in and I smirked at his frail form.

“How the mighty do fall” I chuckled, crossing my arms “remember what I told you? ‘Arrogance can topple giants’ now look at you”

“What do you want?” he growled, turning and walking towards us before grabbing the bars.

“A proposal” I offered “we are currently at war with an alien alliance”

“Yes, I heard” he responded.

“We want you to join us on our travels to the stars in search of new allies” I continued “in return you reformation process will commence, and we’ll be willing to restore you to your full power, should you gain our trust”

“And if I refuse?” he asked.

“Well, you stay in this cage for the rest of eternity” I concluded, crossing my arms “those are your choices; take it or leave it”

“Why would you tell me everything now?” he asked.

“Because I believe in a little thing called trust” I shot back “not that you would know what that is” Luna snorted in amusement.

“Fine” he conceded “but I won’t be your errand boy, and I want all my power restored to me as soon as possible”

“Fine by me” I agreed, opening the cell door “and before you even think of planning some kind of mutiny later on, my mother; Fantasia, will be joining us on this quest” both Tirek and Sombra went white as a sheet.

“Please tell me you’re joking” Sombra gulped.

“Buck up, Sombra” I shot back.

“Sombra‽” Tirek exclaimed “your alive‽”

“Yes” Sombra replied, as we began to leave Tartarus “I’m not so stupid as to plan the annexation of a country without coming up with multiple contingency plans, unlike you, it seems”

“Exactly how many of these ‘contingency’ plans did you concoct, Sombra?” Luna asked, raising an eyebrow.

“128” he answered, smirking. Ok, credit where it’s due; he knows his stuff when it can to tactics and planning “I can give Teridax a run for his money in terms of backup plans”

“I think not!” Teridax exclaimed.

“Prove it” I suggested “both of you come up with your own plans for taking over a country, let’s say, Equestria for arguments’ sake, and all of the back up plans by the end of the month and present them to me, think of it as a planning exercise. Whoever I think has the better plan gets a little more freedom”

…

Soon we made our way back to the ship and were on our way to Canterlot. I was on the bridge with Teridax and Luna, along with the former villains, when Luna received a message, she opened the scroll and her eyes widened.

“It seems we are to make a detour” she said “Miserix has tracked down the last stronghold of the Hand of Teridax” Teridax scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“Friends of yours?” Sombra asked.

“Insane cultists, more like” The Makuta corrected “the world would be better off rid of them”

“Then it is decided” Luna concluded, rolling up the scroll “set a course for their stronghold”

…

I walked up to the front door of the building in my Alicorn form and knocked, a piece of metal slid across, revealing the face of a Unicorn.

“Ko wai e koe?” he said, butchering the pronunciations.

“This is Prince Nova Corona-Solaris Blast” I barked “as a sovereign of Equestria, I hereby charge your cult with terrorism, murder, use of dark magic and crimes of the occult. Surrender yourselves or I will be forced to use all the power I have available to me” the unicorn metaphorically shat himself and ran away from the door. I smirked before blasting the door off its hinges, surprising a large gathering of ponies. Teridax materialised next to me and they looked ready to bolt.

“You claim to stand for me, to represent me?” he boomed “Not even my former, misguided self would have stood for this! Surrender now and your lives will be spared. However, if you do not surrender we will not stop until every one of you is a rotting corpse in Tartarus” all but the leader of the cult promptly ran for the exit, where they were rounded up by Autumn’s former Special Ops team. We turned to find the leader of the cult had disappeared, I turned into my Neu-Toa form.

“Keep your wits about you” I said, standing back to back with Teridax as he drew his Warhammer “I sense this is no mere pony” We both heard a deep, demonic chuckling and the doors to the outside slammed shut.

“Your reputation precedes you, Nova” a voice spoke from above, we looked up to see the Pony; a large unicorn stallion with a black coat and a red mane & tail, walking along a walkway. He spoke again, with a voice that didn’t match the body “do you really think you are the only plain of existence affected by this conflict, the only dimension?”

“What you saying?” I asked, the pony scoffed.

“Let me make this perfectly clear” he clarified, before vanishing. He surprised me by reappearing in front of me and I crossed my swords in a defensive position. “When the universes converged, it connected every dimension, every plain of reality, from the highest temple of paradise, to the night circle of Hell!” his form began to change, turning from that of a pony to something truly dæmonic looking creature with horns and wings and surrounded by a circle of hell fire.

“Why are you here?” Teridax boomed, stepping beside me and pointing his Warhammer at the Dæmon “what are you!?” I began to step back, I knew Teridax was better equipped to take on something like this, I discretely tapped the bracelet on my wrist, disabling all of the power dampeners and restraints, his armour began to glow with crimson red power as his element returned to him

“You have no idea what powers you are trifling with, Teridax; Makuta of Metru Nui” the Dæmon growled, Teridax’s eyes widened and the Dæmon chuckled “yes, I know what you are, all of my kin do. And know that even one such as you are powerless to stop us”

“True” A voice called from the rafters, suddenly a grotesque, angel winged biped descended from the rafters and sliced the head off of the Dæmon with a sword, the Dæmon burst into flames and a mass of flames leapt forth before descending through the ground “but I’m not!” the creature then hilted its sword before turning towards us, as the sword slid into its sheaf I noticed it had a cross with 3 diminishing horizontal lines carved into the blade.

“What the hell are you?” I asked, before pointing at the pile of ash “And what…the fuck…was that‽”

Chapter 6

“I hardly doubt you'd believe me” the creature chuckled.

“I have walked the void between universes, I have been to heaven and back, I have seen things that most can’t even imagine” I responded, walking towards the creature before pointing one of my swords at his throat “don’t you fucking dare tell me I won’t believe you”

“First, don’t blaspheme” he responded calmly, before drawing his sword, knocking mine out of the way and reversing the advantage in his favour so his blade was against my neck. “and second, don’t think for one minute that you are the only being experienced in combat. Now, to answer your question, that creature was a Dæmon, one of the 666 leagues of Satan, and I am a Gargoyle, of the Gargoyle order, I had been sent to track down this Dæmon, but it seems you beat me to it” he then resheafed his sword and stepped back. Suddenly a pony descended from the shadows and charged towards us…only for Sombra to plough into him and pin him against a wall. His bottom jaw split in two and latched onto the pony’s neck, the pony began thrashing before going still after about 30 seconds. Sombra then backed away and the pale, lifeless body of the pony slumped to the floor, his eyes still open in shock.

“Excuse me for that uncouth display” Sombra apolagised, wiping blood away from his mouth with his magic “but it has been oh so long since I last fed”

“You’re a vampire?” I asked.

“Half-vampire” he corrected, I noticed his eyes had turned a deep red colour “My father was a Vampire, I inherited his powers, but none of his weaknesses”

“A Daywalker” I mused.

“That is what my kind is referred to” he said, tapping his chin with a hoof

“Wait, that’s the actual term for your species‽” I asked in surprise. “I was merely thinking of something from Earth” Sombra went to answer me but the Gargoyle spoke up.

“Whilst this is all very interesting, I’m sure we can discuss this in a better location that the stronghold of a cult”

*POV 3rd Person*

Whilst the heroes were talking, two unicorns snuck towards the ship.

“Are you sure about this, Seastreak?” asked one; a stallion with grey fur, black mane, and a magnifying glass cutie mark, as they entered through a maintenance door and began walking through a dark corridor with pipes and wires snaking along the walls like vines in some strange jungle

“Come on, Spellbook” said the other; a mare with dark blue fur, light blue mane, and an ocean wave cutie mark. “they are going to be travelling the stars, this is an opportunity we cannot pass up. Just think of all the things we could see and discover” they soon made their way to one of the main corridors and were just about to merge with the crew of the ship when a shadow loomed over them.

“Vwell” a gruff voice, oddly accented voice spoke “Looks like vwe have a couple of stowavways” the two ponies looked up to see a large bipedal Timberwolf in armour looming over them with its arms crossed and gulped nervously.

*POV 1st person Prince Nova*

We were walking back the The Defiance when my comlink activated.

“Nova” Scar’s voice spoke “Vwe’ve apprehended a couple of stowavways, nothing too serious. But their reasons for boarding are…unusual”

“What do you mean?” I asked, the others gave me an odd look and I waved them away.

“They vwanted to study the ship” I stopped dead in my tracks.

“What‽” I asked, laughing “Is that all‽”

“Yes, and to travel the stars vwith us” Scar grumbled.

“Alright, hold them there until we get back” I said “We’ll be back shortly” I then shut off the comlink before turning to the Gargoyle, who was now in his disguised form; a Human in armour and a cloak.

“So, how exactly does one descend a Dæmon?” I asked.

“By making a weapon sacred” he explained, before drawing his sword and passing it to me. I held it with my magic and examined it, my eyes lingering on the cross of the gargoyle order “all you need to do is inscribe your weapons with that symbol and you’ll be able to descend Dæmons. It can be stylised in any way you desire, so long as it has the key features of the cross of the order” I passed him back his sword before shifting into my Neu-Toa, drawing my swords and shifting back, I then used my magic to carve an elegant version of the cross on each blade. The gargoyle motioned to try out the blades and I passed one to him, he took it in his hands before giving it a few test swings and passing it back.

“A bit too large and heavy for my tastes” he admitted “but then again your fighting form is larger and stronger”

“You know” I mused  “I never did name these blades” I then began to engrave words onto the blade of each weapon; ‘Eldsvåda’ on the right blade, ‘Sáttmáli Banamaður’ on the left. Whilst I was at it I began to engrave an intricate flame pattern into the metal.

“Now” I concluded, giving them a twirl “they are truly my swords” I then shifted into my Neu-Toa form and used my Alicorn magic to engrave a similar flame pattern into the chest plate, shoulder armour and mask.

“Would a warrior such as you normally be allowed to customise their armour in such a way?” the Gargoyle asked.

“Normally?” I asked in response “no, they would not, but as Prince and co-leader of the Sol system alliance, I get certain privileges” we soon boarded the ship and began to make our way back to Canterlot, where the Gargoyle would part ways with us, but not before warning us of the Dæmons first.

I was walking through the hallway leading towards the detention center, when I felt a pair of hooves prod sharply into my back, making me shriek in surprise.

“Jesus fucking Christ!” I exclaimed, panting. I heard a female voice laughing and I sighed. “Really, Depth Charge?” I turned to face her with a deadpan look on my face. Depth Charge was a garter-blue Earth Pony with a grey mane and tail. She was the demolitions expert on my Honour guard.

“Oh, come on, Nova.” she said in a Manehatten accent “You need to lighten up”

“I do not need to lighten up” I said, continuing to walk along the hallway “you need to take it down a notch”

“Oh, sure you do” she retorted, slugging me in the shoulder. When she trotted away from me I rubbed my shoulder with a hoof, she had a strong punch “whenever you aren’t with Autumn you have this sour look on your face” she then put on an exaggerated pissed off expression.

“Because before I was with Autumn I thought I’d live my entire life alone!” I exclaimed, before walking closer to Depth Charge and lowering my voice. “You might not think it, but when I was a human on earth, I wasn’t exactly the most desirable individual out there, several events in my life put a pretty big dent in my self-esteem, so by the time I came to Equestria, I was convinced no one would want to spend the rest of their life with me, hell I still think I didn’t deserve anyone a wonderful as Autumn, or Glück, they are both wonderful mares and I don’t deserve them”

“Well, that’s where you’re wrong, Nova” Depth Charge said, tapping my nose with a hoof “and I want to prove that you are not ‘undesirable’”

“Where are you going with this?” I asked uncertainly.

“Dinner” she said “that’s all I’m asking, you have your own private dining room on this ship, why not make use of it?”

“Are you serious?” I asked.

“Dinner first” she said “then if we connect, we’ll see where we go from there” she then trotted off before I could answer, leaving me stood n the middle of the hallway with a stunned expression on my face” I heard hoofsteps approaching.

“You have to remember you’re royalty now” Autumn said, giggling “You’re more desirable and at some point you will have to start turning away mares and the occasional stallion” I resumed my trek towards the detention block.

“Talking from experi…?” Autumn cut me off.

“Two mares and four stallions” she said “to be fair though, the mares were kind of cute, I was almost tempted to say yes to at least one of them”

“Then why didn’t you?” I asked “I’ll always be accepting of your choices, and you’re practically the leader of our herd” she then trotted closer to me and whispered in my ear

“Don’t you mean that you’re just my little ‘Weibsstück?” she whispered, smirking.

“Well, I wouldn’t say ‘little’” I whispered, returning her smug expression. She blushed and stepped back before following me into the detention block. We soon entered a room where the two stowaways were being held and I sat opposite them, with a table between us. They were two unicorns; a stallion with grey fur, black mane & tail, and a magnifying glass cutie mark. And a mare with dark blue fur, light blue mane & tail, and an ocean wave cutie mark “Care to explain why you snuck aboard my personal ship?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“We’re interested in the design of the ship” the stallion said “the idea of travelling the stars seems tempting too”

“We can help out on the ship if you want” the mare said

“Are you even aware of the type of commitment that would be?” I asked “if you called it quits, we wouldn’t be able to just ‘turn the ship around’, we will be travelling upto hundreds of thousands of light years away from terra, and we are expected to be gone for decades at a time, this is a long term commitment. You sign up to work on this ship? You better be damn sure you don’t have any long-standing commitments here on Terra”

“We are certain we want to do this” the stallion said.

“Okay then” I said “what skills do you have?”

“I can analyse and replicate any spell I see” the stallion explained “and Seastreak here can manipulate water”

“Combat experience?” I asked.

“You wouldn’t believe me” the Stallion deadpanned.

“I’m Prince Nova…fucking…Blast” I said “chances are no matter what kind of cray shit you’ve seen, I’ve seen crazier by far. I was the first Human to be displaced in Equestria…”

“Not true actually” the stallion said “I am…or was, human. I’ve read up about you, I’m from a parallel to your Earth where magic and technology are used side-by-side. Long story short, crazy stuff happened, I fought, and defeated, a bunch of demi-gods, got fused with a spell book and we’ve been traveling around this world”

“How can I know you’re Human?” I asked.

“What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?” he asked, smirking.

“African or European?” I asked back smirking.

“How do you know so much about swallows?” the mare; Seastreak, asked.

“Well, you have to know these things when you’re a prince, you know” I said “Anyway, I have a proposal for you two”

“Go on” the stallion said.

“you’ve both seen to have seen your fair share of combat, and the fact that you’re still here means you must have some degree of skill” I said “so, how would you feel about becoming my 5th and 6th honour guards?” their jaws hit the table, bounced off and hit the floor with a thud.

***

[The next day]

We were now back in Canterlot, this was our final full day and we were going to make the most of it, we wouldn’t be back here for at least a couple of decades. I was walking back to the castle when suddenly I was confronted with the sight of two columns of paparazzi and news reporters.

“Your Highness, what do you have to say about the allegations?” one called and they all went silent.

“I am unaware of any allegations and for the moment I have no further comment on the matter” I then ignored their further questioning and continued walking into the castle and eventually made my way to my office before sitting down behind the desk, I just needed to sign off a few things and then I would be done. One of my P.A.s walked in holding a newspaper in her magic and a nervous expression on her face.

“Heh heh, your highness?” she said, before dropping the paper on the desk and promptly bolting out of the room. I raised an eyebrow before levitating the paper over and freezing up when I noticed the words ‘IS PRINCE NOVA A COVENANT SYMPATHISER?’ printed in bold, capital letters, with a picture of myself conversing with a Sangheili during my day court. The paper promptly vaporised and I uttered two, very particular words.

“Prince….Blueblood”

Chapter 7

*POV 1st person Prince Nova*

I stormed into Blueblood’s office.

“What in the name of my mother are you playing at‽” I asked.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about” he responded smugly.

“You know damn well what the hell I’m talking about!” I said, before levitating the newspaper off his desk and shoving it in his face “I don't know what kind of bullshit power play you're trying to pull here, but I will be keeping an eye on what you do whilst I am gone. So whatever you're thinking, you'd better think again. Otherwise I am gonna turn my ship back around and I will rain down a Godly fucking firestorm upon you! You're gonna have to call the fucking Terran Union and get a fucking binding resolution to keep me from fucking destroying you. I am talking about a scorched Terra, motherfucker! I will massacre you! I will fuck you up!!"

“Nova!” I heard the last pony I wanted to hear right now say. I sighed and turned to her.

“Yes, Mom?” I asked.

“Outside, now!” I threw one last glare towards Blueblood, who looked about ready to shit himself with fear at the appearance of my mother, before walking out of the room. My mother shut the door behind her before turning to me “Listen to me, Nova. I will not have you throwing around death threats like that!” my ears pinned back and I flinched from the chastisement.

“But…” I protested, only to be cut off.

“Don’t ‘but’ me, Nova!” she snapped “I don’t care if he was trying to vilify your reputation, no son of mine will use death threats whilst I am around, and that will be for a very long time to come” I sighed.

“Yes, Mom” I said, hanging my head “Sorry, Mom” she walked towards me and wrapped a wing around me.

“I only berate you like this because I do not wish for you to fall like Luna once did. No more will I stand idly by whilst my children fall to temptation and darkness” she said, before pulling away “It’s good to see you again. Now to see to Blueblood” she then stepped away and calmly walked back towards Blueblood’s office and walking inside before shutting the door behind her. I quietly tiptoed over to the door and put me ear against it, only to hear an almighty shout that left my ears ringing.

“HOW DARE YOU, YOU INSOLENT WELP!!!” my mother shouted as I took several steps back and tried to stop my ears from ringing “I SHOULD STRIKE YOU DOWN WHERE YOU STAND FOR YOUR BEHAVIOR TOWARDS MY SON, YOU CUR! YOU MAY HOLD THE TITLE OF A PRINCE, BUT YOU DO NOT ACT LIKE ONE. WERE I THE ONE RULING THIS COUNTRY INSTEAD OF MY DUAGHTERS, I WOULD HAVE HAD YOU STRRIPPED OF YOUR TITLE LONG AGO!!!” a few seconds later, my mother stepped out of the room.

“Sorry you had to hear that” she said.

“You could have put up a sound proofing spell” I said, rubbing my ear.

“Regardless, I doubt he will bother you any more” she said, she then turned and began to walk down the hallway before looking back at me and beckoning me with a wing “Come, tell me all about what’s happened whilst I have been absent.

*POV 3rd person*

Blueblood poked his head up from behind the desk, before promptly fainting on the spot.

…

Minion was in Canterlot dry-dock, overseeing preparations when he heard a HGV approaching, he turned to see a group of British army lorries pull up in the loading area, and turned into his Neu-Toa form before briskly walking over.

“Need a hand?” he called as the troops began to climb out and unload their equipment, one of them silently jerked a thumb towards the back of the lorry. Nova had requested a small military presence from the UK to represent Earth-1, so the British Army had sent about 30 or so soldiers. At that moment, Minion spotted a familiar face amongst the soldiers. “Thompson‽ Weren’t expecting to see you here”

“Yeah, chain of command has my team tagging along as some of us already have experience working with you” Thompson said, pulling a hold-all bag out of the back of the lorry. Minion pulled out two simultaneously before following after the Lieutenant.

“So, you got any family?” Minion asked.

“Mom and Dad, but that’s about it” Thompson replied “they already know the situation, how long do you think it’ll be until we reach the first planet?”

“A week or two” Minion answered, shrugging “It’s an Exoplanet, about 12 light-years away, discovered by the Kepler space telescope back in 2016, it’s one of the best hopes of finding life yet, so that’s our best bet. From there we’re gonna go to all the other Exoplanets discovered by said telescope and check ‘em out”

“And after that?”

“who knows, probably look around some more” Minion said, he then noticed a couple of the soldiers carry a crate “what’s in there?”

“Ever hear of DARPA?” Thompson asked.

“They make robots for the military” Minion said.

“That’s one of their LS3s used for carrying equipment, we’ve got ten of those plus a bunch of other robots” the ship came into view and Thompson stopped dead in his tracks from awe, Minion chuckled.

“Impressive, isn’t she?” he asked rhetorically “you should have seen our last ship, that one was massive”

“How many guns does this ship have‽” Thompson asked in surprise.

“Enough to keep the covenant a bay” Minion said “It’s more of a cruise ship with a generous compliment of guns than a full blown battleship, but it’s still enough to make them think twice before attacking”

“Cruise ship with guns?” Thompson asked, raising an eyebrow.

“We’re going to be out in space for decades” Minion said “plus it’s my brother’s personal ship, so it’s got quite a few…luxuries, for instance, some of the crew members have kids that they have to bring along with them, so it’s got a small school, there’s also a swimming pool and an auditorium-stroke-cinema” At that moment a flatbed lorry drove past with the lifeless form of GLaDOS secured down on the pack.

“The hell…?” Thompson asked, trailing off.

“Equestrian ships these days need some form of AI to monitor the ship’s systems” Minion said “and it just so happens we have one spare”

*POV 1st Person Nova*

I was sat on one of the balconies of the castle with my Mom, discussing what had changed.

“Terra has started to became a major contender in interplanetary politics” I said “I just hope it doesn’t all go to tartarus whilst we’re gone” I then rested my head on her shoulder.

“You’re going to miss this world, aren’t you?” my mom said, sensing my thoughts. All Alicorns had a low level of telepathy, not to the extent of full blown communication, just feelings, suggestions, emotions. So my mom could sense my feelings a mile off.

“Yeah” I said “this world has been so kind to me over these years, so it will always have a special place in my heart. When I’m here, I feel like I’m truly home. But alas, we must progress, ‘onwards and upwards’, as my people like to say”

“Just know that I will be with you to look after you” she said, nuzzling me, I recoiled slightly.

“Mom!” I exclaimed “I’m not a child, I can look after myself just fine”

“Oh please” she said, rolling her eyes “you’re not even a teenager by Alicorn standards, so forgive me if I display affection towards my darling baby boy” she then pulling me into a hug with her wing before continuing to nuzzle me. I sighed before accepting my fate

*POV 3rd Person*

Spiriah walked into the bridge of the Covenant Cruiser.

“What is it that you wished to speak about?” Taag ‘Ngreeda asked “Speak quickly, Spherus Magnan”

“I wish to join you in your fight against the Neu-Toa” the organic Makuta said “they forsook me without even giving me a chance to prove myself”

“I accept your proposal” Taag said, before quickly closing the distance between them “but know this: I have no reason to trust you, your kind are seen as deceivers even on your own planet”

“Well, you know what they say” Spiriah said “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”

Ruby plodded along the streets of the industrial sector of Canterlot towards the dry-dock, beside her the AI orb, recently named ‘Watcher’ (because let’s face it, ‘he’ wouldn’t be doing any fighting, that’s for sure) floated, keeping pace with the Kirin, said orb had multiple plates of metal above and below the eye to give some semblance of facial expresion.

“Nice to know you and your brother will be the first and only members of your species to go into space” Watcher said, his single robotic eye flashing as he spoke

“What makes you say that?” Ruby asked.

“I could go into statists about how unlikely it is for a pony to successfully mate with a dragon” Watcher said “but I don’t want to bore you with the details”

“Not to mention TMI!” Ruby exclaimed “Seriously, I can figure out how it happens without you giving me a step by step guide” the core smirked and Ruby deadpanned “Don’t even think about it”

“Fine” the core huffed “have it your way” they soon reached the dry-dock and Watcher glanced around at the rough workcrew before saying “well, this is certainly an interesting location” this drew a few glances from the workers.

“Watcher, stop it” Ruby warned.  Watcher didn’t say anything in response and merely continued to float alongside Ruby. Soon they reached the Defiance and from there, the hangar of the ship. Inside they found Breezy working on a mech of some sort. “what is this?”

“Our new Kaita slayer” Breezy said in the Minotaurian accent prominent among Mountain Kelpies like her.

“How wonderful” Watcher said “you can’t solve problems through negotiation so you smash things”

“Shut it!” Ruby snapped.

*POV 1st Person Nova*

I was on Earth with Depth Charge in a coastal town near where I used to live called Cleethorpes, they have a nice little Indian restaurant that sells really good food, the aforementioned pony was currently looking at her meal, a simple vegetable curry, with a small hit of suspicion. I was thankful that they had readied a table at the back of the restaurant, away from the prying eyes of the public, and what few poepe were sat near us were kind enough to leave us be apart from a few questions when we first arrived

“It’s alright” I reassured her “it’s just got vegetables and spices in it, I know the people that run this place, they would not mess up an order like this” Depth Charge reluctantly picked up a fork with her hoof before getting a small amount of food on her fork and placing it in her mouth. Almost immediately, her eyes lit up and she tucked into her meal with much gusto. I smiled knowingly before tucking into mine; a chicken korma with Pilau Rice and Keema Naan bread, if you don’t know what any of those are, then what in gods’ name are you doing with your life, man, step away from your computer this instant, and order yourself an Indian take away right now.

“Thank you for bringing me here” Depth Charge said, “this is a nice little place, and the food is really good”

“Why do you think I had them train a bunch of the cooks on my ship?” I asked rhetorically, before my eyebrows furrowed “Say, Depth Charge, I never did find out here you came from, I mean, you must be from South Equestria, given your accent, but where exactly are you from?”

“I grew up in a town near to Ponyville” she said “so we often heard about all the crazy stuff that would happen, what about you?”

“Whilst I was living in Scunthorpe before I was displaced,” I said “I actually grew up in London”

“City boy” she said, smirking.

“My whole life people were saying I wouldn’t achieve anything” I said, before taking a sip of my drink “they were always trying to push me down, I guess all that I’ve done is my way of proving them wrong” Depth Charge held her glass towards me.

“To proving everyone wrong” she said.

“And succeeding in life” I responded, tapping my glass against hers.

…

Sometime later we were walking along the seafront, the Sun was going down and Depth Charge looked absolutely stunning, with the like of the late evening Sun making her glow.

“Thank you for this” she said, leaning against me, I put a wing around her to stave off some of the cold from the seaborne wind “this is your last night on your home worlds, you could have spent it with Autumn, or Glück, or your family, but you spent it with me” she then reached up and kissed me on the cheek, causing me to stop dead in my tracks. Depth Charge giggled at my shocked expression.

“So, does this mean you’ll join the herd?” I asked, Depth Charge turned and pulled me into a kiss as a response, time seemed to melt away and I was unsure how long we stood like that. Unfortunately, like all good moments, it seems the hands of fate had other ideas about the two of us enjoying this evening.

“Get a room you two!” A male voice called, we both looked over to see a Human in his mid-thirties, surrounded by a small group of humans, all of them seemed just a little bit drunk.

“Do you have a problem with open affection?” I asked.

“When it comes from road shitters like you? Yes” he responded.

“Excuse me‽” I asked indignantly “do you have any idea who I am?”

“Nova, leave it” Depth Charge whispered.

“I will not let us be insulted like that” I said, before turning back to the group and stepping forward before bringing my Alicorn form to its full height, all 6ft of me, minus the horn “I will repeat the question, do you have any idea who I am?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t care” I said “you’re just a pastel Cathyfucker like the rest of your kind, we don’t need your lot on our planet” the group all voiced their agreement.

“Allow me to make this…perfectly clear” I said, before my fiery mane exploded into a raging inferno and I grabbed the leader with my magic until our foreheads were practically touching “I am Prince Nova Corona-Solaris Blast, born on Earth as Luke Washington, I saved your blasted planet because you’re too incompetent to do it yourselves. Inbred-fucking-chavs like you are exactly the reason I forsook my Human heritage. As a crown prince, I have every right to have you arrested and then, just to spite you, I can make sure that you and your friends never succeed in life, I will make sure you end up on the streets for the rest of your life if you do not back right the fuck up immediately” I then shoved him towards his friends “now piss off, before I do a lot worse than make you need a change of underwear” they promptly scarpered and I turned to Depth Charge before sighing.

“Let’s get back to my place”

Chapter 8

*POV 1st Person Nova*

My vision was filled with the purest of white light and I felt extremely disorientated, I felt like I was falling, but at the same time unable to move. I began to panic.

“Calm yourself, Nova” I heard my Mother say, the light faded until I could see clearly again, I was stood with my Mom in an endless void, akin to standing in the middle of a nebula, with stars twinkling all around.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“This is a place know to us gods as the Nether-realm” She said.

“I thought Nether was associated with places of punishment like Hell” I said in confusion.

“And you would be correct” she said “But that is merely a small part of the whole of Nether-realm; like a single star in the entire universe. The Nether-realm is the spiritual dimension, just as the Multiverse is one of many physical dimensions. It is a place where higher beings like gods can communicate without traveling. It is also where Luna watches over the dreams of her ponies. Here, you are never truly far from other gods”

“Why have you brought me here?” I asked.

“Partly to introduce you to this realm, as a way of beginning your training” she said.

“of…?” I asked, motioning for her to continue.

“What role do you think you would play as a god, Nova?” My Mother asked.

“I don’t know, I never really considered” I admitted.

“As a god, it will be your duty to keep balance to your warrior element, and to ensure vast conflicts like the current one is never won by evil” she explained.

“So, I’m a god of fire and war” I said.

“If you want to think of it like that, yes” My mother said, nodding “Now we need to commune with the other gods, to see if they will assist us in our cause”

“Good luck with that” I said, I might be new to this, but even I knew that you couldn’t rely on a lot of gods these days. My Mother sent out a beacon with her horn and one by one, countless different gods and dieties began to appear, from all manner of religions: Pagan, Wiccan, Norse, Muslim, Christian, Equestrian, you name the religion, they were there, even gods and higher beings that didn’t fall under any religion, speaking of which.

“Well, I must say I am impressed” said a humanoid being with Purple skin “such a tiny, insignificant mortal such as you becoming a god, why, that must make you one of the most powerful fictional characters of all time, I’m actually rather proud”

“Save it, Hades” My Mother snapped “Fellow beings, I have summoned you all here for a matter which I’m sure you are all aware of”

“Ah, yes” The reaper said “’The War’, I have been worked to the bone recently ferrying countless souls to the afterlife, no thanks to your son, here”

“Would you rather I did nothing and just stand back as entire worlds burn‽” I exclaimed in protest “I may be new to this, but there are armies out there, if the Conquest alliance were to succeed, not even you gods would be safe. Or did you forget that Lucifer’s Dæmons are already rallied to their side?” every god with a physical form turned towards the aforementioned fallen angel, who was stood off to one side, surrounded by a ring of hellfire. His form resembled an angel with black wings.

“Don’t bring me into this, whelp” he said “I have my reasons, and if you try to stop me I will make eternal damnation seems like a life of luxury”

“Don’t you dare threaten my son” My Mother said, stepping forward.

“I can do what I want” Lucifer said, smirking “And you can’t do anything to stop me, either”

“They might not” Hades said “but I can”

“You are playing a dangerous game” Lucifer said.

“Please” Hades said, rolling his eyes “don’t talk to me about playing dangerous games” once they had stopped bickering we got down to business, which involved asking which gods were on which side. Surprisingly, Hades sided with us, most; if not all of the Equestrian, gods also sided with us, and for the rest it was hit and miss. Eventually there was but one entity left, a pitch-black Alicorn with a smoke-like mane and tail.

“Nightmare?” my mother asked. What most, if not all people didn’t know was that Nightmare moon was a separate entity to Luna, and actually her twin, though Luna was practically estranged from the Dark Alicorn. Lucifer looked at the Alicorn expectantly. All was quiet for some time, for how long, I was not sure, but eventually the Alicorn sighed and hung her head.

“I can’t possible expect you to forgive me for what I have done” she said “But I am asking you to, and I beg of you to give me a second chance, so that I may redeem myself”

“You do know that afterwards you will still have to pay for your crimes?” our Mother asked.

“I accepted my fate long ago” Nightmare Moon said “It was merely a matter of time” with that, the meeting was concluded and one by one all the gods began to disappear, until Myself, my Mother and Nightmare Moon were left.

“Shall we?” Mother asked, myself and Nightmare Moon nodded and our mother’s horn began to glow, before teleporting us out of the Nether-realm and back into existence in Canterlot Palace. Before I had even opened my eyes I heard a commotion right next to me, I turned to see Nightmare pinned to the floor by Rainbow Dash and Applejack.

“We’ve got you this time, Nightmare Moon!” Rainbow snarled at Nightmare, who now looked a lot younger, comparable to Luna when she was younger, she also looked terrified.

“Rainbow, Applejack!” I shouted “Please get off of my sister”

“But it’s Nightmare Moon, she’s here to bring eternal night”

“Have learned nothing from the past year few years‽” I exclaimed “What about the Brotherhood? Or Discord, or even Sombra and Tirek‽”

“It’s still Nightmare Moon!” Rainbow shot back.

“All I see is two fully grown mares about to attack a scared and defenceless filly” I said, struggling to control my temper, which was nearby at the best of times “Now get away from my sister before a make you” their ears pinned back and they quickly stepped away, and I walked over to Nightmare.

“What has happened to me?” she asked, her voice much younger sounding “I am a mere child”

“I can answer that?” my Mother said “I had no other option but to physically and mentally regress you back to your teen years”

“Why?” Nightmare asked.

“There is no other way that the gods would allow you to walk free” my Mother said.

Hang on” Twilight said “how can Nightmare Moon exist separate from Luna, I fought she was a part of Luna”

“Nightmare is Luna’s twin sister” my Mother explained “people think that Luna became Nightmare Moon when Luna was actually imprisoned by Nightmare Moon shortly before she attempted to bring eternal night”

“They why did the elements send her to the moon and not bring Luna back?” Rainbow asked.

“Because the spell I used to imprison Luna was too strong for the Elements to break” Nightmare said, standing up unsteadily “Celestia had to wait 1000 years for the spell to weaken, only then could the Elements of Harmony release Luna and imprison me in her place” suddenly the tone of the throne room was shattered by my comlink activating.

“Nova” Minion said, it sounded like he was trying not to laugh “you better get your arse over to the Defiance as soon as possible, you aren’t going to believe this”

…

“Alright” I said “let me get this straight, you are a race of sapient, semi-indestructible tanks that exist for no other reason than to fight each other, and you want to join us on our quest?” in front of me was hundreds, maybe even a couple thousand human tanks from the WW2 era, from many different countries.

“Jawohl, mein Führer” a MK-IV Panzer called, it’s headlights flashing.

“Don’t call me that” I said, glaring at the Nazi-built war machine. The tank actually seemed to shrink under my glare, if that was possible.

“I say we let them come” Minion said quietly “you know as well as I do that they can be a big help”

“They are sapient tanks” I deadpanned.

“Exactly, they are self contained, self propelled, smart tanks that we can send into situations where no living creature can safely go” he said, listing off on his fingers.

“Alright, but only for you” I conceded, before turning back to the tanks “Very well, machines, you may aid us in our quest, but I have two conditions; first off, all of you are to remain in the hangar unto needed. Second, send a scout back to your world, the rest of your armoured brethren are to aid the Terran Union Army in the fight, and will be repainted and marked as such, along with the rest of you. From now on, you follow my orders” all of the tanks voiced their affirmations, which was odd, to say the least. I turned to Minion.

“If you don’t mind, I’m going to spend hat little time I have left on this Planet with the princesses” and with that I turned and began walking back to the palace, turning into my Alicorn form without breaking stride.

*POV 3rd person*

A few hours later all of the tanks were safely stowed in the colossal hangar of the ship, which was now practically full. Minion was going over the many different tanks, there was that many tanks that he wouldn’t have time to see them all on foot, so he’d enlisted the help of a Hetzer; a small, german tank destroyer, they were small, fast and light on their feet, and they had a mean gun to boot. He was currently sat on the rim of the commander’s hatch, they were looking through the heavy tanks

“How do you tanks see?” Minion asked “And how many of you are there?”

“Du know radar?” the tank asked, Minion nodded “sort of like an advanced version of that, in colour, ve can see all around. Und as for numbars, zere are about…wie sagt man?…five billion tanks” Minion’s eyes went wide.

“That many‽” Minion asked in surprise.

“Jawohl!” the tank said, they rounded a corner and Minion found their path blocked by the mother of all tanks.

“Jesus fucking Christ‽” he exclaimed.

“She’s quite an impressive tank, nien?” the Hetzer asked.

“That’s a she?” Minion asked “what even is she?”

“A Panzer sieben” the Hetzer said.

“In ‘Englisch’, please?” Minion asked. The Hetzer made a sound approximating a scoff

“You know it as a ‘Maus’” he said.

“Well, I do believe that covers the heavy firepower” Minion said “Alright, take me back to the entrance, we can start getting the tanks stripped of paint and refitted” as they turned and drove away, they failed to notice a much larger tank tucked away in the corner of the hangar.

…

When minion got back from inspecting all of the tanks, he ordered for them to be re-armoured and rearmed, with modern weapons, and Protosteel armour. The smaller tanks were to be made the highest priority, as they would be the quickest, in the meantime, the rest had the flag of Equestria painted over the pre-existing emblems, and tanks began to be assigned to battalions and divisions, with the different ‘nationalities’ of tanks being spread as evenly as possible. Each tank was given a unique designation, such as a slogan, fraise or even a name. They were also given individual numbers, set by class or line, for instance, a panzer IV would be given a number like ‘Pz4-194’. Any flaws in the tanks were to be addressed on the way to the next planet, for instance, the Panzerjäger Tiger (P) also known as the ‘Elefant’ was known for having a slow travers speed, due to the turret being ‘hull-locked’, so they were to be rebuilt with rotating turrets.

*POV 1st Person Nova*

I was stood in the dry-dock whilst the crew made final preparations to leave.

“It’s going to be odd, not having you around anymore” Celestia said.

“Well, you know me, always coming back” I said.

“Just…try not to do anything too brash or foolish” Luna said.

“Don’t worry, out mother will keep both me and Nightmare Moon in line” Luna glanced at her twin, who was currently sat some distance away, facing away from us and watching the crew working, she seemed to emanate an aura of despondence.

“Watch over her for me, brother” she said “regression is never good for an individual’s self-esteem. She’ll  be in a dark place right now, be the sibling that we failed to be”

“I will” I said, before pulling them both into a hug, after a few moments I pulled away and stepped back “I better get going, I’ll keep in touch” the nodded and I began walking back to the ship, stopping to walk back with Nightmare along the way. I suddenly stopped and looked towards the palace before casting a spell, a few seconds later Osiris materialised next to me and we continued towards the ship. No sooner did we get on than the ship began leaving, bound for the stars and worlds unknown.

Chapter 9

Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe, or we are not. Both are equally terrifying. - Arthur C. Clarke

*POV 1st person Nova*

For the few weeks spent travelling to the nearest planet, things went peacefully. Sunny, Polaris and Sandstorm had started learning at a school that had been set up. Ruby and Breezy were working as mechanics, helping to update the absolutely massive fleet of tanks we had. I even pitched in where I could, and I found myself growing to admire the engineering and design process behind the German tanks, in fact, most of the MBTs didn’t need many modifications beyond a simple re-armour and refit of weapons, engines and radio equipment, although some clearly had their problems. For instance, with the Maus, you physically could not enter or exit the vehicle mid-battle, and you were screwed if one of the tracks broke, as they were essentially a massive upside down skip with a gun bolted to the top, so you had to lift all 188+ tons of hull in order to fix a mere track link. With this in mind, a totally new hull and turret was made out of 5 inch think Protosteel armour all-round, reducing the weight to about 100 tons, and the same type of 70 pounder gun being used in large numbers on the Defiance was fitted to the turret. One thing that surprised us was tucked away in one of the corners. A massive piece of mobile artillery, known as a Karl-Gerät siege artillery-gun, this thing was beyond big; when in combat, it had to be accompanied by a crane for loading the 60cm diameter shells and several modified tanks to carry said shells. I doubted we’d need to use it anytime soon, but I wasn’t going to

In other events, Garnet and the other teenaged individuals of our company, were shifting from standard combat, to preparation for roles as Neu-Toa, according to my Mother, I now had the ability to make anyone a Neu-Toa, if their destiny allowed for it. Nightmare Moon was also undergoing the same training, but that was only out of necessity and the sake of socialisation at my request, rather than actually becoming a Neu-Toa. Garnet’s entire group had received new armour, which was more advanced than my team’s armour and was partly holographic, giving greater mobility for the arms and lower legs, but offered less protection. However, the upper legs, head and body were armoured as usual. Unlike my group, who utilised a general fighting style that emphasised all-out assault and open combat, Garnet’s team were being trained for scouting and low profile missions, due to their smaller stature, a trait that I intended for them to keep when I eventually felt they were ready to become Neu-Toa.

We exited slipspace near an earth-like planet, after sending out probes, we discovered the planet to be habitable, and civilised to boot, all that remained was to find out how civilised it was. We soon entered the atmosphere and found the surface to be covered in snow-laden forests.

“Must be in the middle of winter” I thought out loud as I looked over the railing of the ship. I heard light hoofsteps approaching and I turned to see Polaris “shouldn’t you be in school?” I lifted her onto my back all the same.

“The teacher gave us the day off” she said “but we have to write about what we learn about this world”

“Well, If you stick with me then you and Sunny are guaranteed to get the best marks” I said, before frowning in thought “although, we’re probably going to end up in political talks…so that might not be the best idea”

“Actually, we were going to see if we could get cutie marks in tank driving” she said, my eyes bugged out in response.

“Serio…actually, I shouldn’t be surprised” I said, rolling my eyes “Which tank were you going to pick?” Polaris shied away slightly and rubbed a foreleg shyly.

“We haven’t picked one yet” she admitted.

“Let me know how that goes for you” I said, before adding with a frown “but if I catch any of you three in combat, there will be serious consequences, I’m not joking here, it’s alright for you to have a bit of fun, but the moment you think there’s going to be trouble, you head right back to the ship or you hide in the tank and let him or her do the fighting for you” Polaris nodded before hopping down.

“I’ll see you later” she called.

…

Sometime later, the ship had landed in a large clearing surrounded by forests and we were getting ready to take our first steps onto a totally alien planet. The bulkhead door opened with a hiss and a metal ramp slid down to the ground, a brisk chill rushed up to meet us as I slowly began to make my way down the ramp, a camera crew watched my every move as my hoof hovered above the snow covered ground.

“One small step for ponies” I said, before placing my hoof down in the snow “One giant leap for…whoa!” only to slip and end up face first in the snow.

…

“FUCKING SNOW!!!”

Most of the nearby crew dissolved into all out laughter, Vinyl didn’t even try to suppress her mirth and was literally rolling on the floor in a fit of giggles.

“Right” I said, standing up and incinerating the snow covering my face “can I just be the first to say that winter is the bane of my existence; winter’s fucked up”

“What’s this?” Sombra said, smirking as he trotted past “the mighty, all powerful ‘shepherd of Fire’, brought down by a little snow? If I knew this when we were still enemies, I would have merely summoned a blizzard whenever we met in combat” Teridax snorted in amusement as he stomped past, followed by Tirek and Brutaka. I shot a glare at all four of them as they went to search the perimeter.

“Fucking titans” I muttered. Aurora walked over.

“I’m going to go have a look around in the forest” she said.

“Alright, but the moment you come across anything sapient or dangerous, you come straight back here”

“Will do” she said, before taking off and flying into the forest.

*POV 3rd Person*

Aurora landed in the forest, kicking up a cloud of snow, she shivered before walking through the forest, she didn’t have any particular goal, she just wanted to explore for the hell of it. The trees were different to trees back on Terra, but there were certain similarities. Her attention was drawn to a low hanging branch, with a strange, four winged, four legged white lizard, about a foot in length. The reptile looked at Aurora before quickly flying off. Aurora smiled softly before something cold and made of metal was pressed against her neck.

“Waeg ere sien?” a male voice said, whilst it obviously spoke some form of language, it was nothing she could understand. Aurora slowely turned around and found herself face to face with a five foot tall, reptilian, four armed centaur brandishing some form of blade.

“I’m Aurora” she said, the creature liked at her in confusion and she rolled her eyes, she then pointed to a tree “Tree” she repeated the word until he nodded and placed a hand on the bark.

“Staunde” he said, Aurora then pointed to herself.

“Aurora” she said, before gesturing to the creature as a way of questioning.

“Dazaethuer” the creature said. Aurora then began to sketch out shapes, such as stars and a basic sketch of the ship.

“Ship, stars” she said, she then pointed at the sketch of the ship and back in the direction of the clearing “ship, over there” Dazäðür nodded and put his blade away. Aurora then began walking back to the clearing, when they got to the edge, the native creature’s eyes went wide at the sight of the ship. Aurora made a motion to ‘stay here’ before flying towards the ship.

*POV 1st person Nova*

I was helping to set up a camp when Aurora came flying over at an incredible pace, she also had a massive grin.

“You seem happy” I noted.

“No time” she said, hovering “I’ve initiated first contact with an alien species, and we managed to understand each other on a basic level”

“Where are they?” I asked, changing into my Alicorn form.

“He’s just inside the forest” she said.

“Show me” I said, before calling other to my Mother and she trotted over “we might need your help, Aurora has discovered an alien species” my mother’s eyes widened.

“Sapient?” she asked.

“Very” Aurora responded “he speaks a language I’ve never heard before, but it seems to share some similarities with Germane, among other languages”

“Excellent” I said, we began to make our way toward the edge of the clearing and Aurora stopped before calling out a word that I didn’t understand, soon a creature unlike anything I’d ever seen before stepped out of the woods, he was about a foot shorter than I was, covered in green scales, had a reptilian head, a centaur-like body and four arms. To my eyes he also looked to be still in his teen yearsm though that as just assuming based on the growth rates of Saurians back on Terra.

“This is Dazaethuer” Aurora said.

“Waeg ere diren hainen?”  Dazaethuer asked, Fantasia blinked in surprise.

“He just went through multiple Terran languages in a single sentence” she said “the words are slightly different, but I think I understand him…barely” her horn began to glow and the same glow surrounded her throat “can you understand me now?” Dazaethuer nodded

“Dach” he said.

“Would you care to repeat the question?” my mother asked, he asked as before and my mother nodded “I am Fantasia, this is my son, Prince Nova, and his niece, Aurora. We are from another world, far from here, we come seeking an alliance with your world, would you be willing to escort us your nearest political leader, so that we may begin negotiations?” he looked at my mother in surprise before nodding.

“Ick Woold baarn Zescluzhe” he said, before giving a quick bow

…

A short while later I along with my mother and my team of Neu-Toa were getting ready for a week long trek, we were also being accompanied by my honour guard, Nightmare and Aurora. Dazaethuer’s species frowned upon using transport. In fact, royal messengers and soldiers were the only individuals to use transports with any frequency. We didn’t qualify as either, so we would be traveling by hoof in our organic forms, as they were better for long distance running, despite their small size, equines and other similarly sized quadrupeds are really good at running hard, running fast, and running far; an athletic pony such as Applejack could easily cruise at 70mph and maintain it for hours, if not days at a time. I was walking through the armoury when I noticed Raz fitting a par of mechanical leg braces, designed to help him run faster and longer, next to him was Thunder Bolt, the leader of the honour guard, putting on a pair of electrified hoof claws.

“Third time doing diplomatic missions and I’ve never seen weapons help much” I said.

“I don’t plan on using them” he said in a Stalliongrad accent.

“Then why bring them?” I asked.

“Same principle as a condom” he said, flicking his wrists, causing the claws to swing up and out of the way “I’d rather have one, not need it, than need it, and not have one”

“I have to agree with Bolt on this one, Nova” Raz said, checking his sniper rifle “we don’t know what could possibly be out there, whilst a local to act as a guide is useful, I’d rather put my trust in something that can actively protect you, unless you can speak space-reptilian” I snorted at the pure irony of a Sangheili, the definition of a space reptile, using the term to describe another species.

“I might not” I said “but this can” I then levitated a headset over, Raz grabbed hold of it before examining it.

“It’s just a headset” he said “I don’t see how this can help”

“It has a two way translation matrix” I said “put it on and speak in sangheili” he did as I asked and began speaking into the microphone.

“I don’t believe you…” he said, before his eyes widened, he took it off before I gestured for him to keep it.

“Keep it, all of us will be receiving one” I said. Sometime later all of us were ready to set off, we had about 700 miles to go, so every day it would be eat-sleep-run-repeat until we reached the capital.

“Think you can keep up, Mother?” I asked. we were at the side of what would qualify as a main road back in England, or a large side street in America.

“Oh please” she said rolling her eyes “I can run for days at a time, the question is: can you keep up, young one?”

“If you are quite done” Dazaethuer said, his accent a weird cross between British, German, Swedish and Russian, he also sounded quite young, about Aurora’s age “we should probably depart, the road is long, and we have a mountain range to cross” and with that, we set off on our journey.

Chapter 10

*POV 1st person Nova*

We were all running along a relatively straight road, whilst we were doing so, we were also telling Dazaethuer about ourselves.

“What about her” he asked, nodding towards Nightmare, who was flying quite a distance above us to rest her legs

“That’s Nightmare Moon” I said “long story short, she tried to take over our country and now she’s serving alongside us before paying for her crimes”

“care to elaborate?” he asked.

...

*flashback*

Twilight stood in front of a defeated Nightmare Moon.

“We’ve finally defeated you, Nightmare Moon” Twilight said “and now, I’ll make sure you never threaten Equestria ever again” she then lifted up a hoof directly above Nightmare Moon’s head “prepare yourself, for the reckoning and the cleansing fires…” Nightmare Moons pupils shrank to pinpricks.

“Spare me please!” she begged.

“Of a…” Twilight then brought her hoof down and pressed it against Nightmare Moons nose “BOOPTISM!” she then began to chant “The power of Celestia compels you. The power of Celestia compels you. The power of Celestia compels you. The power of Celestia compels you” Nightmare Moon sighed.

“You do realise how ridiculous you sound right now, right?” she asked as Twilight continued to chant “as if this’ll do anyth...” a pop echoed out and in the place of Nightmare Moon now laid Luna.

“Well I’ll be” she muttered in amazement, as Twilight beamed.

*end flashback*

…

“THAT’S NOT HOW IT HAPPENED!” Nightmare shouted as I finished my version of the story.

“what’s her sentence?” Dazaethuer asked, everyone went silent and looked away from myself and my mother.

“she tried to bring eternal night on our world” my mother said “keep that in mind when I tell you that if she cannot convince the gods that she is reformed, then her sentence is execution” she then charged on up ahead.

“I take it I touched a nerve” Dazaethuer said.

“it is one of the topics that even we don’t talk about” I said “while she is guilty, she is genuinely remorseful for what she did, and I don’t want to lose any more family, not again”

“Again?” he asked.

“My Human father” I said, before taking off. I needed to rest my legs. I soon levelled off next o Nightmare “how are you doing, sister?”

“So you already consider me a sibling?”

“Have you met my family?” I asked “I have about seven separate families under the same house”

“But why get close to me when I’m doomed to be executed anyway?” she asked, making eye contact with me.

“Because if I’m going to stand by your side and make sure they don’t hurt you” I said “Like it or not, you’re my little sister, and I’m going to protect you, no matter what”

“Even if that means defying your fellow ‘gods’?” she asked.

“Yes” I said “Because you’re a part of my family, and a leader protects his own” Suddenly Dazaethuer shouted through his come link.

“MOVE, NOW!” acting on instinct I barged into Nightmare and pushed her out of the way, just as a massive black mass dived below us. We both began to fly as fast as we could, I looked down and stared in awe at the creature, it looked ever so vaguely like a bat with four wings, but its sheer size dwarfed even the largest dragon back home. It was climbing back up. “get moving, Nova, if it gets you there won’t be anything left of you”

“We have wings, not jets” I said, before banking quickly to avoid its massive jaws “I can accelerate rapidly on take-off, but once I’m in the air, that’s a different matter entirely, besides, I am not leaving my sister behind” I then turned to Nightmare “I need you to fly as fast as you can, I have an idea”

“Whatever you two have planned, you better do it quick” Dazaethuer said “the capital is just around mountain”

“I hear you” I said, we both began to put all the spare energy we had been reserving for the final stretch into flying as fast as we could. We banked around one of the massive mountains and a city that put Canterlot to shame came into view. This was where my plan came into effect. I suddenly angled my wings, banking and pulling up into a stall before turning to one side until I was facing the side bat-like creature as it flew past me, I then began to unleash a volley of offensive magic along the side of the beast until I was directly behind it. I then charged up all my magic before unleashing it in one blast. The beast went limp before tumbling to the ground far below. Leaving a small crater in a large field

“Nice one, Nova!” Autumn called.

“Yeah, just like you thought me” I said, banking around to meet back up with them, Nightmare followed suit “I also added my own personal touch to it” Dazaethuer chuckled.

“Our fighter pilots could sure learn a thing or two from you” he said

“We can do that after I’ve spoken to your king” I said.

“I wouldn’t speak too soon” he replied, suddenly I heard the unmistakable buzzing of a prop-driven aircraft and a large aircraft, almost like a WW2 era fighter plane, but totally alien in design, flew next to us. The pilot’s jaw was hanging wide open at the sight of us and I nodded and waved a hoof before descending towards the ground.

*POV 3rd person*

Sombra was walking through the forest alongside a flowing stream.

“Sombra” a baritone voice called, he looked around in confusion.

“Who’s there?” he called, he looked into the stream and saw a shadowy cloud with piercing green eyes that seeped purple smoke staring back

“How long do you think you can keep me at bay, Sombra?” it asked “a week, a month, a year?”

“I have no need for you any longer” Sombra said, continuing to walk along the river.

“Oh, don’t make me laugh” the shadow replied “without me, you would be nothing but dust, Sombra, or did you forget it was I who you made a pact with when you enslaved those crystal ponies” Sombra felt his vision distorting.

“Get out of my head” he hissed.

“Just think, Sombra” the shadow said, leaping out of the river “That bastard prince and his pathetic mother are hundreds of miles away by now, the ship is leaderless. It would be oh so easy to take it for yourself, you could be the ruler of an entire planet, and then? Well, who knows, how about a little…galactic conquest to break up the day?”

“Enough! Diabolus!” Sombra shouted “I am done with you, there are more important things than our own personal gain”

“Very well” Diabolus said, chuckling “You can have your pathetic little war, but I will be hanging over your shoulder always, Smokey Quartz, and just when you think you are safe, I will worm into your cold, black heart and rip it out of your chest, your soul. Is. MINE!” Diabolus then dissipated and Sombra was left standing there in shock.

…

On a ridge, high above the stream where Sombra was, stood two grey skinned Reptaurs, they had a much more primal look to them, and were astride large, 8-legged canines of some sort. One turned to the other.

“Gonera nazar tor nashar Funhurha” he said, before they both turned and charged away from the ridge.

*POV 1st person Nova*

We entered the gates of the grand mountainside city and I opened my saddlebag, letting Osiris slither out. Minion did the same with his saddlebag and a massive dog with a great big black and tan woolly coat leapt out, this huge dog was a Tibetan Mastiff, and it stood as tall as any ordinary pony. The city seemed to be carved out of the mountain itself and comprised of stone grey buildings, all of the citizens were similar to Dazaethuer in appearance, except the adults were tall, about 15 foot for some of the older individuals, they were all staring at us, wide eyed.

“How long do your kind live for?” I asked Dazaethuer.

“about 3000 years” he said, shrugging. We all gaped in astonishment “your kind don’t live that long?”

“Between 70 and 150 for ordinary ponies like my honour guard” I said “but Alicorns like myself are immortal” suddenly a tall Reptaur (yes, that is their actual species name, or rather, the English translation) in metal armour and wielding a rifle galloped up to us.

“Sien zere, hawaf!” he called. He regarded us with curiosity, before focussing on Dazaethuer, who took off his headset.

“Hie zere, Kreechafskopeton Hiegera” Dazaethuer said nervously “Ick bein nazar” the other Reptaur shook his head.

“Knochte deeze Zeete” he said “Sien sinden pate tor dan Alairkung” he then stepped turned to us “Wailtche est vask unteermahe heire? Fram vask skrade sien sinden krigouren” I tossed a headset over to him and he caught it before looking at it in confusion. I rolled my eyes before gesturing to the one I had on and he reluctantly put his on.

“I don’t speak your language” I said “this is the only way we can communicate with any efficiency”

“Very well, speak quickly” he said.

“We come from a far off land and we wish to speak with your High King” the Reptaur scoffed.

“My kind has travelled all four corners of the world and no one has ever seen anyone like you” he said.

“Okay then” I said, dead panning “We’re aliens…from space” he held a straight face for about half a second before bursting out laughing. I rolled my eyes before summoning a great column of fire above me and manipulating it into a collection of memories of my journeys: The Equestrian Princesses, the Griffins, The Covenant and the Spherus Magnans. I dispelled the flames and began to advance upon the centurion.

“We have been running through the snow for 7 days to speak to your king because we decided to respect your customs, we could have simply flown here on my 1000ft long spaceship but we didn’t, so I would at least expect you to let us talk with your high king” he simply nodded dumbly and looked at us all, wide-eyed.

*POV 3rd person*

The two scouts were on a decaying hilltop outpost, filled with a large number of Stadhoutes and their riders, looking out over the landscape was a very large pure white Reptaur.

“[Leader]” one of them said. His voice filled with fear “[whilst out of patrol we discovered creatures…beings from beyond this planet]” their leader held up one of his hands to silence him before turning to face the scouts, he had blood red eyes and the entire left side of his jaw and part of his face as covered in metal plate. He began to walk towards the scout, stopping to absent mindedly scratch the ear of his own Stadhoute.

“[You are quick with your report as always]” the leader said, walking towards the scout. Suddenly a metal, bipedal being with four arms stepped out from the shadows: Taag ‘Ngreeda “[but you are still…too late]” he then gave a roar before picking up the scout by the neck and flinging him into a pit, where he was quickly set upon by several Stadhoutes who made short work of his body.

“[You have no tolerance for failure, Gathgulra]” Taag noted “[I have a feeling our alliance will be a strong one]”

“[Just promise me you can provide my army with your technology]” Gathgulra said.

“[That can be easily done]” Taag responded, as his new battle steed, a large, armoured Stadhoute, plodded over and he climbed onto its back “[I am a Sangheili of my word, just promise me you can provide me with the troops]”

*POV 1st person Nova*

After being escorted by Captain Hiegera to the palace of the high king, we were told to wait outside the throne room. The captain turned to us.

“You are royalty, correct?” he asked, addressing myself and Autumn, and to a lesser degree Glück and Depth Charge. The four of us nodded “It is customary for Royalty like you to not bow, doing so would be like saying you are lesser than our high king”

“Thank you for the advice” I said, before passing another headset “if negotiations go successfully, you can expect traders to start arriving in the near future” he nodded before opening the door to the throne room and stepping inside before shutting it behind him. I suddenly rounded on Dazaethuer.

“Care to explain why the soldier wasn’t too happy to see you?” I asked.

“I may or may not have knocked over a statue of the high king” he admitted “and I may or may not have gotten banished for it”

“Fucking great” I muttered, as the door to the throne room once again opened and Captain Hiegera walked out.

“The king will see you now” he said, as the doors began to open, revealing the throne room inside.

Chapter 11

*POV 1st person Nova*

As we walked down the…lengthy throne room, I began to feel a small amount of trepidation. The high king was just sat there, he didn’t have any look of surprise on his face, he just looked smug, irritatingly so.

‘Looks like we’ve got a believer of ‘divine right’, great’ I thought. Since I had become an Alicorn I had learnt to read ponies, so I could spot arrogance a mile off, and this king reeked of arrogance. The Griffin king paled in comparison.

‘Calm your thoughts, Nova’ My mother said, projecting her thoughts onto my own.

‘You know how much I hate people like him’ I retorted. We eventually reached the throne and everyone bowed except for my princesses, my mother and myself.

“Your highness” I said “I am Prince Nova Corona-Solaris Blast; The Shepherd of fire and Warrior Prince of the Royal Equestrian Diarchy of Terra-1, Duke of Trottingham of Terra-1 and Duke of North Lincolnshire of Earth-1, Located in the Sol system in the constellation of The Hunter, commander of the Terran Union Army and co-founder of the Galactic Democratic Republic. And with me is Fantasia; the overseer of Creation, and Autumn Skies, Glück Bolzen and Depth Charge; Princesses of the Royal Equestrian Diarchy. We come offering friendship in the hopes that we may form a strong alliance with your people” For a while the high king just sat there, stroking his chin. Eventually he spoke up

“What does your alliance have that could benefit my people?”

“Technology” I said.

“We prefer to stay close to nature” he retorted.

“Knowledge”

“Not important in the long run”

“Trade”

“We are content with trading with the nations beyond our own borders” it went on like this for some time, no matter what I put forth I would get shot down at every turn. Eventually I sighed in defeat.

“It appears you have no interest in joining our alliance” I said “Very well, we will make haste to the next planet”

“I never said you had to leave” he said “In fact, I was wondering if you and your wives would join me for lunch, I can see in your eyes that you have quite the story to tell”

“Fantasia is my mother” I said, I noticed his eyes widened slightly “But regardless, we would be honoured to join you”

*POV 3rd Person*

“Will you please be careful, Polaris?” Sandstorm called out. In addition to the two fillies and Sphinx cub there was Aiden, Jasmin, a Qilin (not to be confused with Kirins like Garnet and Ruby), and finally a Capall Uisce filly by the name of Delma. The six of them had become close friends (much like the Elements of Harmony or the Neu-Toa) soon after the Defiance had left Terra. All of them were currently riding a medium 3 British tank, with Sandstorm poking her head out of the commander’s hatch and Polaris actually sat on top of the turret.

“I have to agree with your friend” the Tank called out in a female voice, it had a kind, almost motherly tone to it. “It might be best if you were inside, I don’t won’t you falling off”

“Relax” Polaris said, her voice had a slight Germane inflection as a result of spending so much time with Glück Bolzen, her adoptive mother “besides, what could possibly go wro…” at that moment the tank rolled over quite a large bump in the road, sending Polaris stumbling off the side of the turret, before impacting the ground hard and rolling down the embankment. She only came to a stop when she hit a tree, and two sounds rang out: several sharp cracks, followed by an ear-splitting scream.

*POV 1st person Nova*

I was sat at a large table, retelling my tails to the High King, right up until a letter materialising in front of me interrupted me. The king raised an eyebrow and gave him and apologetic smile and opened the letter, only to shove the letter in Autumns face before bolting out of the throne room. I took off into the air and no sooner had I left the perimeter of the city than I heard a large boom and a flash of red filled my vision.

‘Not my daughter, not now of all fucking times

…

I impacted with the ground just outside the ship, creating a small crater and surprising Teridax, Tirek and Sombra.

“Well, someone’s in a hurry” Teridax quipped.

“Now is not the fucking time” I said, pushing past them.

…

“You…fools!” I exclaimed, I was stood in the medical ward’s waiting room, along with Sunny, Sandstorm, Aiden, Jasmin and , all of them were shame-faced “I warned you to be careful, and now look what’s happened, Polaris has broken both her wings and she might not ever be able to fly properly. You’re lucky I don’t have you all grounded for the rest of your lives, especially you, Sunny” said Pegasus winced.

“Believe it or not” I said “I won’t always be there to protect you” Delma dared to smirk

“But I though Alicorns were immortal” she said.

“Silence, welp” I snapped and her ears pinned back “you know damn bloody well what I meant, what about when you’ve all grown up and are no longer living near to me?”

“Nova” A voice called, I sighed and turned to see a Turaga of Ice wearing a noble Arthron and holding a three pronged ice staff standing in the doorway “A moment?” I turned back to the younglings.

“Don’t for one moment think I am done with you five” I said “don’t move an inch” I then walked over to the Turaga. He gestured down the hallway with his staff.

“Walk with me” he said.

“My patience is wearing thin today, Turaga Kelvire” I warned.

“Whilst I will not claim to know what it’s like to raise children” he said “I do know when you are being just a little bit too harsh. Yes, they made a mistake, but surely, their own guilt is punishment enough”

“My daughter could be flightless!” I exclaimed.

“And Teridax has healing powers” he countered, I rolled my eyes.

“Oh please, Teridax isn’t the most reliable of, quote-unquote, ‘allies’,” I said.

“You’re lucky I didn’t take offense to that” I heard Teridax say from behind me, Causing me to stiffen up “It is not that I am unreliable, It is a case of what I have to gain from aiding you in healing your daughter” I growled before shifting into my Neu-Toa form and rounding on the Makuta.

“For one” I said, scowling “I won’t be tempted to use my newfound god powers to eradicate you from existence” Teridax hummed in amusement.

“For a ‘Neu-Toa’, you sure do act remarkably like a Makuta” He said, smirking.

“Enough, both of you” Kelvire said, before pointing his staff at me “Nova, you need to lighten up and not be so harsh” I sighed and nodded before shifting back into my Alicorn form.

“Yes, Turaga Kelvire” I said, the Turaga nodded and turned to Teridax

“and you need to be more willing to help others”

“I will heed your advice this once” Teridax said “Wise one”

Teridax stepped towards a hospital bed. Polaris was laid upon the bed, looking up at the Makuta uncertainly

“I won’t lie to you, young one” Teridax said in what could almost be considered an almost sympathetic tone as his hands began to glow a strange mix between gold and crimson “This is going to hurt a lot” he gently placed his hands on the wings and Polaris let out an ear splitting scream as they began to mend themselves. Suddenly Teridax’s eyes widened in surprise as metal supports began to appear on the topside of each wing.

…

Fantasia teleported onto the ship with the rest of Nova’s company, creating quite the sizable scorch mark on the metal floor.

“Well that’s one way to travel” Dazaethuer said, just as Autumn, Glück and Depth Charge all bolted for the medical wing of the ship. As they drew closer Glück heard Polaris screaming and she accelerated past the other two, time seemed to slow for her as she rounded a corner and burst through a set of double doors, only to be greeted by the sight of Teridax stood over her daughter, casting some sort of spell. She charged towards him.

“Holen Sie sich das Bock von ihr, du Ungeheuer![Get the buck away from her, you monster!]” she shouted as she charged, before turning on her heels and bucking Teridax in the chest, sending him flying into the wall. She then began to advance on the Makuta whilst charging up an offensive spell “You vill not harm my daughter, you Scheiße!”

“2 things” Teridax said, standing up “1. I was healing your daughter, not harming her. And 2. You may have just saved her from becoming fully biomechanical” Glück cautiously walked over to an unconscious Polaris before gasping at her wings, they were now partially mechanical.

“Vat did du do‽” she barked.

“I did not plan for that to happen” Teridax countered “It was an un-anticipated side effect of what happens when someone used to biomechanical biology tries to heal the wings of a fully organic individual” he paused before adding “look on the bright side, Pony, at least she won’t be as likely to break her wings a second time” Glück glared at Teridax as he left the room, but all the same she didn’t voice her protests, instead opting to climb onto the bed and pull Polaris closer to her.

*POV 1st Person Nova*

Polaris was now healed and resting, and my mother required my presence for something. I walked into a blank room, used for meditation, and found my mother sat in the center of the room.

“You summoned me?” I asked, she didn’t so much as move as she responded.

“Where do you think you affinity for fire and draconic traits come from?” she asked. I sat down next to her before answering.

“At a guess I would say my Neu-Toa form” I said.

“What if I told you that I wasn’t the only Alicorn the affect your creation?” she said “You have a father, by the name of Eclipse”

“I would wonder why you were only just telling me this now” I said.

“His is a sub-species of Alicorn, known as a Draconic Alicorn” she explained “due to…past issues, he is exiled in the Frozen north of Terra, but he still had a hoof in your creations, that makes you a Draconic Alicorn as well”

“Again, why are you only just telling me this now?” I asked.

“Because there was no need, and if you are concerned about getting there? That is not a problem” she said “it is how I fear he will react to your presence, but regardless, we still need to sway him to our side”

So, we’re going to Teleport back to Terra for a short while?” I asked, she nodded ever so slightly.

“Before you ask, we cannot afford to go seeing old friends or family this time” she said. “However, Celestia will be aiding us, as Eclipse is also her father”

“No offense” I said “but I only had one true father in my eyes, and he’s dead”

“I never said you had to accept him as your father” she said “I just want you to accept your origins and make the choice for yourself” I sighed before nodding.

“I right, I’ll help you” I said “I just need to say goodbye to my family”

…

I walked into Polaris’s room to find her sat on the bed.

“Hey kid, I’m going to be gone for a while” I said, walking over and pulling her into a hug “but I’ll be back soon”

“You must hate me” she said sullenly.

“Why ever would you think that?” I asked in shock.

“Because I’m not strong like you” she said, looking away.

“Are you kidding me?” I asked “I would never, ever, hate you for getting hurt, I’m disappointed that you weren’t careful, but that’s because I care about you. I love you as if you were my birth daughter and I don’t want to see you get hurt, think you can promise me you’ll try not to get hurt whilst I’m gone?” I bopped her nose with a hoof and she giggled.

“Okay, Dad” She said.

“There’s a good girl” I said, smiling softly “Be good for your mothers whilst I’m gone” I pulled her into a hug one last time before leaving the room.

…

I was stood in a room with my mother and my family.

“Be safe” Autumn said.

“You know me” I said.

“That is exactly what I’m worried about” she said, a concerned expression on her face.

“Don’t worry” I said “I’ll be fine

“Nova” My mother said “It’s time” I nodded before pulling Autumn into a kiss, surprising her. I pulled away and smiled

“I promise you I’ll be back” I said, before walking over to Mother, who was staring at me with an eyebrow raised. She snorted before teleporting us away, back to Terra.

Chapter 12

*POV 1st Person Nova*

The first thing I noticed when we materialised was the almost unnatural cold. We were almost immediately surrounded by a blizzard

“Jesus Christ!” I exclaimed, beginning to shiver “did you have to bring me to the middle of a bloody ice age‽”

“The Frozen North is colder than usual” My mother noted calmly.

“Something is affecting the weather” I heard Celestia shout faintly, I spotted her trudging through the snow towards us.

“Is this Eclipse’s doing?” I asked, they both shook their heads.

“Eclipse prefers to control fire” Celestia shouted over the wind “this is something different, something is controlling this, I doubt we are alone in this wasteland”

“Oh, screw this” I shouted “LOK VAH KOOR!” the snowstorm cleared and a swear I heard a shriek.

“Well” Celestia said “that solves that problem, but presents us with a totally new one”

“Such as…?” I asked only to trail off as an Alicorn landed in front of us. It was huge, easily 10ft tall, with a blood red coat, a great, spiny, reptilian tail, and a large helmet with huge dragon horns poking out of the sides. Thick, black smoke seeped out of a vent at the front and its eyes seemed to glow red

“Who dares to summon me?” he asked, his voice was gravely, and possessed an almost mechanical quality.  My mother stepped forward.

“Eclipse” she said softly “It’s me, Fantasia”

“What do you want?” he asked, I swear the glow from his eyes narrowed “My patience with you is wearing thin already, speak quickly”

“We need you to help us” my mother said “There is an allian…”

“I know of the war” he said, turning away “I realise what you are requesting and I have no desire to help you”

“Don’t you get it?” I asked, stepping forward “We are up against countless foes who are superior to us, we need some one of your power”

“…’Someone’…I sense you are no regular Equine” he said.

“I am Prince Nova, a former Human, Fantasia’s son…your son”

“I vaguely recall assisting Fantasia” he said “But regardless, I have no need for paternal bonds, or any emotional bonds for that matter. My power is beyond your comprehension, my level of existence…superior to your own, I can reduce entire worlds to ash should I so desire, but I allow this world to endure…out of mercy. My name is Lord Eclipse. Your only king, master, and God. Obey me... serve me... worship me...or perish from my hoof"

“I bow to no one” I said “least of all an arrogant fool like you”

“Nova, don’t” Celestia pleaded. Eclipse chuckled

“Listen to your sister, ‘Nova’” he said “prove to me that you are the coward I know you to be” I looked away before promptly casting a fireball at him, knocking him back.

“How about I prove to you that I’m not a coward” I said.

“Funny, deep down…you know you cannot stop me” He said, turning away from me “yet you still challenge me…I can see why Fantasia chose you to liberate the universe” my eyes widened and I looked at my mother with a questioning glance “I see she has withheld information from you, as always…she always has her secrets”

“What do you mean?” I asked

“She isn’t some infallible god like she would lead you to believe” He said, I noticed my mother didn’t say anything or even attempt to stop him “she has made countless mistakes. She does not have a use for me beyond helping to create her ‘chosen ones’ so she cast me out here…into her personal dumping ground”

“What do you mean ‘chosen ones’?” I asked.

“Celestia and Luna were created with a purpose” he said “to unite Equestria…you were also created with a set purpose, something is coming, I know not what it is, but the entire universe will be at stake, you were created to stop that. As always, Fantasia is trying to control the flow of time”

“I ask again” I said, ignoring him “will you join us? You possess immense power, and I happen to know a couple of beings who would just love to get to know you”

“I assume you are referring to Teridax and Tirek” he said, turning to look at me “those two beings are nothing compared to me. But regardless, I will join you, not because I believe my assistance will help you, but because it gets boring seeing the same white expanse for eons” At that moment we both heard Celestia and my Mother cry out, only to be silenced. We turned to see them encased in ice. I ran over and tried to free them, but the ice simply reformed where ever I melted it “It appears we are not alone, stay sharp, I’ll been following this one for some time, it has immense control over ice, even I have trouble containing it”

“Containing?” I asked, still attempting to melt the icy prisons

“Stopping it from running loose and freezing the rest of the world” he said “It has been a mild irritation, but in recent days, it has sent the arctic weather out of balance, I fear it hungers for more territory” At that moment a large being comprised almost entirely of ice sprung up out of the ground and pinned me, I tried to buck it off of me, only for my hooves to freeze to it’s body.

“Did you really think I would let you succeed with that attack?” he asked “I am the Element lord of Ice, and nothing can stop me” Suddenly a red horn poked through the beings chest.

“I beg to differ” Eclipse said as his horn began to glow, beginning to melt the being’s chest, he then drew his horn to one side, ripping a chunk out of the Element lords cavity before he seized the being in his magic and flung him to the snow before constructing a cage of crystal “that should hold him back for a couple of millennia, can you walk?” I stood up.

“I’ll be fine” I said, before blasting Celestia and my Mother with a wave of pure heat, finally causing the ice to melt. Celestia looked confused.

“What…just happened?” she asked.

“Something long forgotten, from Spherus Magna’s dark past” I said “Now, we must make haste back to the Defiance”

“Then I must make haste back to Canterlot, we all have duties to attend to” she said.

“Send my love to my parents” I said, she nodded before teleporting.

“So” Eclipse said “shall we?” My mother frowned, but didn’t say anything as she closed her eyes and cast the teleportation spell.

…

We reappeared in the same room as before, startling Teridax, who held his hammer in a defensive posture, before relaxing.

“You’re early” he stated.

“It didn’t take as long as we thought it would” I said “Teridax, this is Eclipse, he is technically my father, in the sense that Fantasia is my mother. Try not to piss him off”

“You know me, I wise enough to not anger a higher being such as him” he said. Eclipse simply ignored us both as he walked past, his tail dragging along the floor.

“He actually intimidates me” I admitted.

*POV 3rd person*

Eclipse stood on the top deck, overlooking the alien landscape. He heard steps approaching and turned to see Dazaethuer walking over.

“What are you?” the Reptaur asked.

“You would know me as a Draconic Alicorn” Eclipse said, turning away “I am the first, and I will be the last”

“But, where did you come from?” the Reptaur asked. Eclipse’s horn sparked into life and the scenery around them changed into a dark expanse. Suddenly Nova appeared.

“Giving our guest a history lesson?” he asked

“Granting him enlightenment, you may stay if you so wish” Nova nodded.

“Carry on” Eclipse nodded and began speaking.

“Before time began, there existed the higher beings – Gods, if you wish to think of them as such – Myself and Fantasia were just two of many entities, back then, there was no time, there was no mass, there was no energy, we simply…were. One instant, but at the same not an instant, an incomprehensible quantity of matter burst into existence” suddenly a tiny light appeared in the darkness “Nova’s race refer to it as “the big bang”, Equestrians call it the dawn of time, but in reality it was anything but. The standard concepts of time and space did not apply in this early universe, and it was smaller than you can fathom, some of us saw an opportunity and acted upon it, giving it the spark it needed to expand” suddenly the point of light burst forth, before forming countless stars and galaxies “During the first few moments of existence, we laid down the laws of reality, thus setting the universe into motion for the next 14.5 billion years. We then spread out, using newly formed worlds as experiments like a scientist in a laboratory. The world myself and my kin settled on is an old one already showing the first signs of life in the form of rudimentary creature of blood and flesh. We altered their genes, making them into techno-organic lifeforms that would eventually be known as…Spherus Magnans” the scene now changed to a very primitive Spherus Magna, with many races living in harmony together.

“So wait a moment” Nova cut in “you are saying that Alicorns are the great beings?”

“ That is what the Spherus Magnans referred to us as…yes” Eclipse said “We disguised ourselves as cloaked bipeds so as not to seem out of place amongst them. For a time, they were at peace, but we tired of their kind, so we created the Element Lords to rule in our stead, that was our first mistake. For a time, they ruled their respective tribes in peace, together, but separate. Then the Element Lord of Ice discovered an element that we had not encountered before, a substance that was capable of sapient thought…an element called Energised Protodermis. The other Element lords expected him to share in the discovery, but the Lord of Ice was blinded by greed and refused, thus began the core war” the scene before them unfolded to show a colossal battle, as tribe against tribe battled it out to take control of the energised protodermis.

“And that is when the shattering occurred” Nova said, Eclipse nodded.

“The core war weakened the planet, as a final resort, we built a colossal robot to explore the cosmos and later return to balance to the world, but the power was too great for it's body to handle, and it tore itself apart"

"Mata Nui" Nova stated, Eclipse nodded once more and the scene changed again.

"We learned from our mistakes and began to construct a new, larger robot, this time we used the Energised protodermis as a power source, but it was too late, as the robot left the planet, Energised Protodermis leaked from the core and split the planet into three: Spherus Magna, and it's moons, Aqua Magna and Bota Magna"

"100'000 years later, the Planet would become reunited after a great conflict, this was our time to bring about a change. Fantasia planted the seeds of a tree of harmony that would reshape the planet, it was...difficult to watch...as the Spherus Magnan races were pushed almost to the brink of oblivion, but they migrated to the south of the planet and there they would remain, isolated from the rest of the world. And so we began to plant the seeds of new life, organic life, we took our time, starting with simpler organisms and passively shaping the course of evolution and history for the next 400'000'000 years, until we come to the point we are at today. We have made mistakes, but we learnt from them, and we have a thriving planet to show for it" the illusion dispelled, returning to the view over the snowcapped forest.

"I hope to one day see it for myself" Dazaethuer said, before turning to Nova "If you will let me join your ship, Nova"

"If you have no reason to stay on your home world, then who am I to stop you?" he asked. Suddenly Autumn galloped over.

"Nova!" she called "we have a problem"

*POV 1st Person Nova*

I was stood in the war room, used to coordinate battles. Captain Hiegera was stood at one side of the holotable, looking rather worse for wear, he had arrived via transport, so something must have been wrong.

"When you spoke with the high king you mentioned a group called the Covenant, yes?" he asked, I nodded and gestured for him to continue "I fear they may be aiding our foes, you remember how the high king spoke of the greyskins" he then dropped a stack of photographs on the table, I levitated the photographs over to myself and my expression became troubled, the pictures showed pale skinned reptaurs astride large canine-like creatures, armed with covenant weapons, in one of the photographs what looked like a high ranking warrior seemed to be conversing with an Elite Zealot.

"they managed to take multiple towns in a matter of hours, and decimated out forces, I myself barely escaped" Heigera said "The High King would be willing to form an alliance with your republic if you would aid us in combating this threat"

"Captain Hiegera" I said, passing back the photographs, I would gladly fight along side you and help your people to fight the Covenant

Chapter 13

*POV 1st Person Nova*

I looked over the letter one last time and grinned, this was better news than I could have hoped for, not only had the rest of the alliance backed my decision to help Reptauria in their fight against the greyscales – the ruling power from a neighbouring country – they were going to actively assist us, and they were sending the best possible help, I shan't spoil the surprise, but needless to say, it would help turn the tide in our favour. I was interrupted from my musings by Mavumbi Tufani: a white and chalk-green Shedu mare and a member of Autumn’s honour guard, landing on the deck of the ship next to me, she barely reached my knees.

“The High King has been informed of the news” she said in a Zebrican-Equestrian accent.

“Excellent” I replied “hopefully, this should be over within a few weeks, months tops”

“How’s project hailstorm going?” she asked, I look down at her and raised an eyebrow.

“That’s classified and you know it” I said.

“What can I say?” she asked, scratching an ear like a cat “Shedu are naturally good at being not seen and not heard, whilst seeing and hearing everything, that’s why we are chosen as spies so often. We are like your hobbits of lore, we can make ourselves invisible if we desire”

“Still not happy that you found out” I said.

“My lips are sealed on the matter” she said, drawing her paw across her lips in a zipping motion. Suddenly Garnet ran outside.

“Dad! Come quick, we’ve got a situation” he said “the extra-terrestrial kind” I raised an eyebrow.

“Enemy?” I asked, he shook his head.

“Worse” he said “galactic lawmakers” I groaned, we had been preparing for a situation like this, an encounter with a pre-existing galactic alliance that worked to maintain order. This was going to be a hug setback.

“Lead the way” I said.

…

I walked along a lengthy bridge made of some unknown alloy, suspended over a seemingly endless pit. Beside me were Autumn, my mother, Eclipse, Teridax, Hecate, the Hellhound, and Osiris, my pet snake. Some distance away to either side of us were countless different species sat on massive grandstand like structures. We reached the end of the bridge, where there was a podium of some sort, presumable for speaking. In front of us was a second podium, raised up somewhat, two individuals stuck out in my mind, the first was humanoid…ish, presumably female, tall and slender, of a pale green colour and wearing ornate clothing. The second was large and bulky, and seemed vaguely reminiscent of a shark or whale.

“State your names, species’ and titles” the female alien stated, she was most likely advanced in years, going by her voice. I stepped forward and cleared my throat.

“I am Prince Nova Corona-Solaris Blast of the Draconic Alicorns, minor prince of the Royal Equestrian Diarchy and co-leader of the Galactic Democratic Republic” Autumn stepped forth.

“I am Princess Autumn Skies of the Pegasi, minor princess of the Royal Equestrian Diarchy and general of the High-Lady General of the Terran Union Army” she then stepped back and my mother took her place.

“I am Fantasia of the Alicorns, the overseer of Creation” she stepped back and Teridax took her place.

“I am Teridax of the Makuta, master of shadows and leader of the Brotherhood of Makuta” he stepped back and Eclipse took his place. When he spoke I could practically feel a shiver run through the entire assembly.

“My name is Lord Eclipse. Your only king, master, and Go…” I quickly put up a silencing spell around him.

“Please forgive my ‘father’” I said, gritting my teeth “he is incredibly ancient and has some…dated viewpoints, I hope you will accept my apology in his stead” I could practically feel Eclipse’s eyes boring into the back of my head the entire time.

“…Indeed” the female alien said “and what about the…serpent and canine?”

“Oh, Isiris?” I asked, as the rainbow cobra slithered over and loosely wrapped itself around me “he’s my pet, and an insurance policy against assassins. And Hecate is with Teridax” the bulky alien raised an eyebrow.

Very well” the female Alien said “read the charges”

“Prince Nova” the bulky alien said, reading off a comically small piece of paper “you and your company stand before this council accused of initiating an unauthorised hyper-jump in a class one war vessel, and then landing the vessel on a level three inhabited planet and initiating contact with the locals without prior authorisation, not only that, but two years ago, a temporal disturbance of trans dimensional proportions occurred, and all of your company test positive of the exact same energy as detected during the disturbance” a murmur ran through the council.

“How do you plead?” the female alien asked.

“Guilty” I said “however, you can’t possibly place charges upon us, for multiple reasons”

“Go on” the female alien said.

“Number one, in regards to the hyper jump and initiation of contact, we had no prior knowledge of this alliance’s existence, so how could we possibly gain authorisation”

“Hmm, true” the female alien concluded.

“Number two” I said “I’m not to blame for the disturbance…Teridax is” a murmur sprang up once more and the bulky alien leant against the railing of the platform.

“Then why did you bring an individual possessing such immense power before this council‽” he exclaimed, slamming a fist down.

“Calm yourself, Captain Gantu” the female alien said

“During that time he was an enemy of Equestria, with plans of galactic domination” I explained “however, he has since surrendered, been tried and is under reformation, with high prospects of success, I might add”

“No one that criminally insane can be reformed so quickly!” Captain Gantu protested

“Watch your tongue, mortal creature” Teridax growled, and the entire room grew darker.

“ENOUGH!” I boomed, before clearing my throat “The reason Teridax reformed so quickly is because we currently have much bigger problems to worry about, which brings me onto why we used a war vessel” I brought up a holo projector, I activated it and it displayed one of every type of major species in the conquest alliance. Autumn stepped forward.

“We are besieged on all sides by an alliance that wants nothing less than the total eradication of us and anyone that isn’t a part of their alliance, to them, an planet being destroyed is merely less enemies for them to fight, we are at war, and so we have no choice but to travel around in war vessels”

“But surely you could just reason with them” the female alien suggested.

“Not going to happen” I said, before activating a recording showing the Daleks laying waste to a city on one of the parallel Terras, their cries of ‘Exterminate’ sounding off for all to hear, the council began to murmur “This is race known as the Daleks” Eclipse stepped forward.

“Rudimentary creatures of blood, flesh and metal, they believe themselves to be the perfect lifeform in existence, and ultimately wish for the destruction of all life that is not ‘pure Dalek’, there are an affront to the nature of the universe, even by my standards”

“Yet they are part of an alliance of multiple species” the female alien said.

“they are under the same faction, but they are by no means allies” I said “with them it’s merely a case of, ‘I’ll kill you last’, in-fighting is common, but unless we can outnumber them, they are sure to overpower us and destroy everything in existence, I ask your council, no I beg of you, to consider helping us in our war, else we might all lose” the female alien thought for a moment.

“the council will discuss the matter” she said “but in the meantime, you are to be contained, rules are rules, and you still violated multiple laws” I sighed and nodded.

“As you wish, ma’am” I said, bowing my head ever so slightly before turning and walking back along the bridge.

…

We walked through the prison area, flanked by armed, saurian-esc guards, and Captain Gantu. As we walked, Teridax was almost seamlessly shifting into any inmate he saw, unnerving both the inmates and the guards.

“Will you stop that?” Gantu asked. Teridax shifted back to his true form and chuckled.

“You needn’t worry about me trying to escape” he said “else I would have already done it before you would have had time to comprehend what was happening. There are 1000 ways for me to destroy you, 941 of them hurt” Gantu bent down and whispered into my ear.

“Why exactly do you keep him around?” he asked.

“It keeps the enemy on their toes” I said “if we had more of his species still around we would have a decent chance of winning as is. It’s just a shame someone pulled a holocaust on his entire species” I shot a meaningful glare at Teridax, who hesitated.

“that was 400’000’000 years ago, things were very different” he said “you know the reasons why I did what I did, what matters is what we do now” We eventually reached our cells and  Autumn, Osiris and myself were locked inside the same cell, with Fantasia and Eclipse inside their own, and Teridax and Hecate inside their own cell.

“Well that went well” Autumn said, rolling her eyes as she punched the door with a forehoof, only to leap in to the air with a shriek as the door delivered an electric shock in retaliation, she promptly shook her hoof rapidly, trying to alleviate the pain “Ow! buck that hurt”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have punched the door” I sang.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have let us get arrested” she sang sarcastically in response as she rubbed her hoof, I noticed the tip of her hoof was singed slightly and stepped towards her, a worried expression on my face.

“Seriously, are you okay” I asked, gently taking her hoof in my own and examining it, a black scorch mark covered the hooftip “I thought Pegasi were resistant to electricity”

“Thunder clouds in Equestria are different to the ones on Earth” she said, wincing “for one, they use volts over amps, so if someone get’s shocked it isn’t dangerous, that door must use amps over volts” I cast a healing spell and she sighed in relief as the pain faded.

“Better?” I asked, she nodded and rested her head under my jaw, which we would often do when we were alone. After some sitting like that with our eyes closed we both heard the door opening and the grand council woman clearing her throat.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything” she said, raising an eyebrow.

“No, ma’am” I said, standing up.

“Good, the council has reached a verdict” she said, smiling ever so slightly “and I must say you are rather lucky”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because it just so happens an ally of yours came to us two days previously looking to form an alliance” at that moment a familiar Sangheili stepped into view wearing extremely ornate gold armour.

“Greetings, Prince Nova” he said, nodding.

“Arbiter” I responded, nodding back “It is good to see you again”

“Same to you” he said. Suddenly an explosion rocked the entire ship and I had to steady myself before I ended up on the floor. An alarm began to wail through the entire prison complex.

“What the hell was that‽” I asked, suddenly I could hear gun fire and a very distinctive alien language.

"Jees tragu ouwooor!" I heard a heavily distorted, electronic voice shout, before a spat of gun fire went off, followed by severa screems.

“Your Magesty, Arbiter” I said, walking passed the Grand Council Woman and the Arbiter and out into the hallway “might I suggest you get yourselves to safety, These are Decepticon Cybertronians, and they’ll step on you as soon as look at you”

“What about you?” The Grand Councilwoman asked, I shifted into my Neu-Toa form and drew my swords.

“We can handle ourselves just fine” I said, glancing at Autumn as she stepped out of the cell in her Neu-Toa form, I levitated a Av-power blade out of my hammerspace and passed it to the Arbiter “Take this and escort the Grand Councilwoman to safety, the weapon fires concentrated light, just try not to point it at an ally, it’s one of the only types of weapon that can punch a hole clean through Protosteel” Thel Vadam nodded before leading the Grand Councilwoman in the opposite direction to the battle. I glanced toward the cells containing Teridax & Hecate and my Mother & Eclipse and ripped the doors off with a jerk of my head. Teridax immediately stepped out and drew his hammer, followed by his Hellhound.

“What are we up against this time?” he asked.

“Decepticons” I said, before pausing “from a different universe than the last lot by the sounds of it” A missile shot towards us and myself, Autumn and Teridax stepped out of the way before Teridax charged towards the smoke, hammer held in both hands.

“Wehi te ariki e o atarangi!” he boomed, before disappearing into the smoke, only to be sent flying backwards towards us, He stood up and dusted himself off “They have a driller” a massive worm-like creature burst out of the smoke and began making its way towards us.

“Uh, Nova, you know that theory you told me about?” Autumn asked, slowely backing away “the one about turning organics into techno-organics?”

“Yeah, why?” I asked.

“Now would probably be a good time to put that theory to the test” she said, I glanced down at Osiris and Hecate.

“I hope to God this works” I said, before putting my swords away and touching my fingers to the back of their skulls, Osiris’s appearance began to change, growing bigger and robotic in appearance, until he was on par with the driller in sheer and mass. Meanwhile Hecate merely grew a couple of feet taller and robotic in appearance. The greatly enlarged cobra looked at me and I jerked my head towards the Driller, which was still some distance away “Whakamatea te reira” Osiris nodded before slivering towards the driller with a hiss. Hecate took her own initiative and charged after him with a growl.

“Let’s help them out” I said, before drawing my swords and charging. As Osiris and Hecate reached the driller, it suddenly burrowed down into the ship. An eerie silence descended upon the massive cavern-like room we were in, the main battle having moved elsewhere.

“I hate to sound clique, but I have a really bad feeling about this” Teridax said, holding his hammer at the ready. Suddenly four of the driller’s tentacle-like appendages sprung up around Teridax before lifting him high into the air “Haere koutou kāwai paru atu o ahau, rahi” he began trying to rip them off but they began to bore through his armour. He groaned before trying to pull one out of his chest.

“Teridax!” I shouted, before running, and jumping up between the four tentacles, in a split second I drew my swords, energized them and sliced clean through all four tentacles, sending Teridax crashing to the floor. I then began to fire countless bolts of pure elemental energy into the floor, I heard a shriek and what remained of the tentacles quickly retreated. I ran over to Teridax, who was leaking Antidermis alarmingly “Shit, you're hurt”

“I’ll be fine if I can…absorb a Cybertronian” he said, straining as he stood up and leant on his hammer “their armour is self-regenerating” I nodded before turning to Autumn.

“Lead my mother and Eclipse to safety” I said, before walking down the hall after Teridax, Hecate and Osiris.

“What about you and Teridax” she asked. I energised my swords and glanced back at Autumn before answering her with a smirk.

“We're going hunting”

Chapter 14

I jumped behind a corner to avoid another missile.

“Of all the Decepticons, why do it have to be Brawl?” I asked myself, we’d found a Decepticon, to only problem was he turned into a massive tank, was built like one, and about 40 ft tall.

“How are we going to do this?” Teridax asked, he was clutching a gaping hole in his chest, and was surrounded by a thin fog of antidermis.

“Myself and Hecate will try to lead him towards you” I said “Then Osiris will restrain him so you can absorb him and repair your armour…or I’ll just kill him and make it simpler for both of us” Teridax nodded and I jumped out into the corridor before spreading my mechanical wings, drawing my swords and taking flight down the corridor, dodging bullets and missiles, whilst my armour deflected those that I couldn’t avoid. I reached Brawled and dived under to avoid a swipe from his blade, before landing on his back.

“D͏̨͏͏i̶͘í̕͝z̨d̷͟a͝҉̡͝ ͏̵̡̕͟G̡͟͜҉u͜͏ư̸̶̕ḑ̶̕͝a̴̕͜͢͠!̷́͞ ” he shouted in Quintesson, trying to grab at me

“K̴͘a̡̛ ҉̛h͠í͟n̢g̴a̶͟ ̴͝ko̸͞e͏́!” I shouted back in Spherus Magnan, ripping off one of the missile launchers, causing it to fire off automatically.

“*Huar* G̡a̶̧͡n̕a͘f ҉D̶u҉̷a̷r̴! ” he shouted, as his weapons began to fire randomly, I noticed some exposed wires and ripped them out. Causing him to stumble “d̸̀y̡̛s̵̨̨h͡ ̛͠t̀́͞͏r̕ò̷͟͜ģ̨͟͜͠a͘͢͠h҉̵̸́̕ ̨̛̀ţ̛͝r̶a͘͝c̷̵̡o̴̷̡̡̕l͟͝͠r͟҉̶͏ą̀h̢̛̛͢!̸͠ ” I pulled out one of my swords and energised it before slicing his massive head clean off, the heated Protosteel blade cutting through metal and wires like they were nothing. A glowing red oil-like substance gushed out as the carcass tumbled to the ground.

“You will all fall to me” I said, the thick red substance dripping off my blade and armour. Teridax limped over and I noticed his eyes widen ever so slightly as he looked at my oil-covered form “He’s all yours” I then walked off, leaving a trail of oil in my wake. The Decepticons wanted to fuck with my allies? I would gladly spill the blood of millions of Decepticons to get the point across that I will not be fucked with. As I walked I could hear Teridax laughing, his voice dropping several octaves until he sounded exactly like I remembered from when I was younger. I heard heavy footsteps approaching from behind and turned to see Teridax stomping towards me, he was now pitch black and gunmetal in colour, with his mask now looking much like the original Kraahkan, he was much taller, between twenty and 30  feet tall, had tank tracks for feet and wielded a double bladed staff in his right hand while his left arm had a canon attached to it.

“What are your orders” He asked. I drew my second sword.

“We will slaughter them all” I said, Energising both blades

*POV 3rd person*

Autumn led Fantasia and Eclipse down one of the corridors at a brisk pace.

“We have to find the communications array and contact the rest of our team and our Honour guards” Autumn said. They rounded a corner, only to come face to face with a tall decepticon, made of gunmetal armour, tank tracks on his feet and spindly hands.

The Decepticon quickly pinned all three ponies.

“What have we here?” he asked “Have you organics come to surrender to the mighty Lord Megatron?” Autumns pupils shrunk to pinpricks, something the leader of the Decepticons quickly noticed “It seems you have heard of me.

“You think you are the only version of yourself out there?” Fantasia asked, she was being pinned down by Megatron’s other hand, along with Eclipse “There could be hundreds of you retched cretins skulking about the Galaxy” Megatron growled and pushed her down.

“I should kill you where you lay for that” he said, Eclipse’s eyes narrowed

“If you did that then you won’t even have time to blink before I destroy your mind and string your corpse up in the halls of the gods” the draconic Alicorn growled, Megatron released Autumn and Fantasia before lifting up Eclipse and holding him aloft.

“Who are you to threaten me‽” he exclaimed, Eclipse chuckled.

“A god like your Primus” Eclipse said “Now unhand me and I will let you surrender with your life” Megatron growled and threw the Alicorn at one of the walls, before a missile slammed into his shoulder, followed by multiple bolts of elemental energy, sending him stumbling to the ground. Autumn looked in the direction the attack came from and her eyes widened in shock and fear.

*POV 1st Person Prince Nova*

I walked towards Megatron before sprinting and climbing up onto his chest, I then pointed my swords and his face.

“Alright, Decepticunt, these swords fire bolts of fire twice as hot as the sun” I said “so shut up and stay down or I will not hesitate to melt your ugly face to slag!” he growled, but didn’t try to get up. Teridax stepped forward.

“You are going to order all your forces to retreat” Teridax said, pointing his cannon at Megatron “or we start slaughtering Decepticons, just like Nova here did with Brawl”

“Get off of me, human filth” Megatron growled. I touched the red hot tips of the blades to his face.

“Swear that you will order your troops to retreat!” I ordered “I am more powerful than you realise, do not underestimate me” Megatron growled.

“I swear to no one” he said “but I will order my forces to retreat as you have asked, now got off of me” I jumped off and Megatron slowly stood up “This isn’t over, Human, we will meet again, and when we do I will strip the flesh from your puny body”

“Just try it” I said “I have a goddess for a mother” He scowled before stomping off.

“You’re just going to let him escape‽” Autumn exclaimed.

“If we were to kill him now, we would have an entire Decepticon army on our tail” I said “Now let’s find the Grand Councilwoman and get back to the Defiance”

Sometime later, we found the Grand Councilwoman and the Arbiter.

“Thank you for assisting us” the Grand Councilwoman said.

“So, does this make us allies?” I asked.

“With what’s out there, we have no choice” she said.

“There’s an old Spherus Magnan saying, where I come from” I said “It seems rather fitting”

“And what would that be?” she asked

“t̕e̴ h͏̀o͝҉̴ar̸̕ì͞r̵̛i͏ ̷̢͢o҉̶͝ ̶t͜o̵k̵̢͢u ̵̡͝h̶̸o̶̕ą̷͢ŕ̢i҉̕͟r͢í̕͡ ͜k͟͝o ̴͝i̵̵͜ ̸t̴̀o͢͞k̴͘u̢҉ t̶͝i̴̸n̛̕o̢͞͝ ̀͝ho͜a̷͝” I said “the equivalent in this language is ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’”

“Fitting indeed” she said, smiling slightly. Eventually we left and arrived back at our ship via a teleport. I was communicating with the rest of the leaders of the Galactic Democratic Republic about the events when another communication came through.

“I’ll  get back to you” I said to the council, before closing their channel and opening the new one “Yes?”

“Ahoy there, me ’arty!” I heard a familiar person call, or should I say, dragon, as their face appeared on the screen

“I was wondering when you would call, Blazewing” I said, leaning back in my chair “Is the Jörmungandr ready?”

“Ready to go and be’er than ever!” he replied.

“Good, because I’ve now got clearance for you and the rest of the fleet to make a teleportation jump directly to this planet” I said, leaning forward and typing in the required coordinates before sending it to him “I’ve sent the coordinates to you, I’ll meet you outside” I shut down the communication and left the room before walking outside, where various crew members were preparing for the fleet’s arrival. Captain Hiegera walked over and looked around in confusion.

“What’s going on?” he asked. Suddenly the sky above us, about a ¼ of a mile away, crackled with lightning that seemed to have no apparent source, before the sky tore in two and many great ships, from many different nations, flanked by smaller frigates, squeezed through the portal, I smirked and turned to the captain. Whose jaw was wide open in shock.

“This” I said “is my army, fully battle ready and capable of teleporting to anywhere on the planet is mere minutes, no doubt it will help to turn the tide of your war” Heigera nodded dumbly

“How many ships have you got up there?” he asked.

“Ten TUA Titan class super-heavy Battleships, including the Jörmungandr herself, 20 TUA Defiance class luxury battle cruisers, 5 UNSC Infinity class heavy warships, and many more that I can’t care to count” about ten minutes later a familiar gold and blue Dropship Landed and The Wolfpack stepped out.

“Brother” Vapaa said “It’s good to see you again…though a word of advice, when you see firestorm, watch what you say” I recall my mirror self – Vuur Koningin – had changed her name to Firestorm not long after in changed mine to Nova, what I don’t recall was her gaining a scoped Panzerhau fitted with some manner of breathing apparatus, and a mechanical left arm with quite a vicious looking gauntlet for a hand. As she walked towards us she held out her left arm and a serpentine wyvern flew out of the dropship and landed on her wrist.

“Toa Firestorm, reporting for duty” her voice had a distorted, mechanical quality to it.

“What happened to you?” I asked, she scowled

“Dark mirror Autumn Skies happened” she spat, Autumn raised an eyebrow “when Celestia from the dark mirror found out it was us that trashed the rainbow factory, she sent Autumn and a number of elite guards in two teams, the first attacked our barracks and Autumn herself did this to me; a gauged left eye, crushed larynx, shattered left mandible, shattered left cheek bone, severed left arm and a collapsed left lung, if it wasn’t for Trigidax, I wouldn’t be alive, let alone standing here now”

“What of the second team?” Minion asked. Firestorm’s expression contorted into a snarl.

“They went to my earth and slaughtered my entire family!” she spat, before her expression softened “every last member, from my oldest grandparents to my youngest nieces and nephews, now I am all that is left of my family” Trigidax placed a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.

“Why was I not informed of this?” I asked Vapaa, trying not to lose my temper. Mirror world or not, Firestorm’s family was my family too. Vapaa went to say something but Firestorm cut him off.

“I told him not to” she said “it was not your burden to bare”

“P̴͞u͏r̶̡ú̸̡t̸̵͜ūta̸͟e̸̷!” I cursed “I had every right to know”

“Regardless” Firestorm said “It was in the past, and we have other things to worry about, like helping you to win this war.

Sometime later, we were sat around a campfire, one of many in the large clearing. With myself and the rest of my team no longer a part of the Wolfpack, Vapaa had assumed command as we’d previously agreed to, they were now stationed at a barracks on the Border between North Equestria and Minotauria. Though some members weren’t content with Vapaa being in command, despite the fact that he knew just as much about combat as I did, if not more. Echo, the Neu-Toa of lightning, spoke up.

“Ka'aina” he said, using the name Mata Nui had given to me after we had taken Equestria back from Teridax. “With you and your team otherwise occupied…” he them pointed one of his staffs at the white and gold Toa of Light “Vapaa has held command, despite his complete and total lack of anything resembling warrior discipline” he then stabbed his staff into the ground and leant on it. “he’s like a child” Vapaa stood up and began to walk over to the changeling

“This child is about to kick your ass” he said, before kicking the staff out from under Echo and kicking him to the ground.

“Cage fight” Rainbow Dash muttered

“Smart ass” Echo said, before activating his mask of quick-travel, grabbing the staff and reappearing behind Vapaa before pinning him with his two lower arms, and holding his staff against Vapaa’s neck with his upper arms. Applying a small electric charge and preventing Vapaa from focusing enough to teleport out “Am I the long sage who sees through this puppy-dog eyes act? It’s beneath you!”

“What’s the matter with them?” Dazaethuer asked.

“Some of them don’t like change” I said, before drawing one of my swords and driving it into the ground “ENOUGH!” veins of magma spread along the ground, and Vapaa used the distraction to grab Echo by the staff, flip him over his shoulder and onto the ground, landing hard on his back, I shot a glare at the Toa of light and he shrugged. I stood up and walked into the middle of the circle.

“I know some of you might not be too happy about the change of leadership”

“Ye got that right” Bhradain muttered

“But we have more pressing matters” I said, I then turned to my female counter part “Firestorm, you know I prefer to leave the parralel ersions of our team mates be” she nodded “but when I find Dark–mirror Autumn…she’s going to die” Autumn’s eyes widened, and I noticed Teridax raise an eyebrow.

Chapter 15

*POV 1st Person Prince Nova*

The moon rose behind a grassy hill as a Half-track big rig straight out of the apocalypse and armed to the teeth stopped on a grassy hill, overlooking a military base of some sort. I walked up alongside and patted it on the bonnet as Firestorm and my team climbed down from the cab.

“Alright, Teridax” I said “this is the place” I heard a growl as the entire rig disintegrated into millions of tiny particles and reformed as Teridax. He pulled a tarpaulin over his head, obscuring his glowing red eyes

“are you sure?” he asked. At that moment firestorm’s wyvern flew over from the military base and landed on her gauntlet, the Neu-Toa of fire stroked it’s chin and turned to Teridax.

“This is the place” she said “This is the Terra I arrived on five years ago”

“Vwell?” Scar asked, shifting from his timberwolf form into his Neu-Toa form and pulling out a bow-like blade “Vwhat ist zee plan?”

“Hit and run” I said “we storm the place, cause as much mayhem as possible, and then get the hell out of dodge before they have time to react”

“This isn’t typical Toa behaviour” Trigidax noted.

“They struck first, we’re simply retaliating” I said “Minion” he smirked and drew one of his swords before stabbing it into the ground and firing off an EMP burst. I saw the lights in the base go out and I turned to my fellow Neu-Toa “let’s show them what happens when they fuck with one of our own” We then charged down the hill, as we drew closer Teridax armed his cannon and fired, blowing a hole in the wall as I burst through and into a large hangar of some sort, before flinging a pony against the wall

“GET OUT!” I roared at the ponies milling about “all of you!” they promptly scattered. “Destroy every bit of military ordinance and hardware!”

“Gotcha” Scar said, before levelling his Gatling gun at a weapons shelf and firing, reducing it to molten slag, Teridax rounded on a line of military vehicles before firing a volley of missiles, destroying them.

“HEY!” I heard a familiar voice shout, I turned to see Autumn, in gold armour, walking towards us “who the buck do you think you are!? Storming into here and destroying everything”

“Who am I?” I asked, putting my weapons away before grabbing her with my magic “I am Prince Nova, Draconic Alicorn and Neu-Toa, and you slaughtered Firestorm’s entire family, so I’ll be asking the questions around here” The Pegasus smirked and glanced towards the female Neu-Toa of fire.

“I love what you’ve done with your helmet” she said, Firstorm lunged at her only to be held back by Trigidax. I snorted before pinning Autumn against a wall with enough force to

“Don’t you fucking dare speak to her” I said “give me one good reason not to kill you right now” she chuckled

“You’re married to me” she said.

“Get bucked!” my Autumn snarled, I pinned one of my swords against the other Autumn’s throat.

“Do it” she said “reveal your true colours to the entire sol system; someone who attacks defenceless ponies and employs terror tactics” I paused.

“Just give me the word” Vinyl said, pointing her bass cannon at Autumn, I slowly held up a hand to stop her. Before turning back to Autumn.

“You’re lucky I’m married to one of your parallels” I growled, before dropping her “Toa, we are done here”

“I’ve been itching to kill something lately” Minion grumbled, before pinning Autumn back against the wall with a flick of his wrist

“When we next meet, I won’t hesitate to kill you” I said, before firing a bolt of fire at her shoulder, causing her to cry out in pain

“When I had your family killed, I should have gone after your side as well!” she screamed

“Then you would have had the gods to worry about” I said, before stepping through the wall and out into the night.

*a few hours later*

I sat on the roof of a temporary building set up on the outskirts of the Reptaurian capital. With the permission of the High-King we had set up a military camp of sorts, and warriors and soldiers of many different species were working together in preparation for an upcoming battle; the enemy were slowly advancing towards the capital, we were here to make sure they didn’t take it. A major aspect of the TUA that set it apart from other armies was its use of rahi and animals as war steeds, for instance, dragoons often rode on large predators such a big cats, Rahi (ever see one of Brutaka’s kind riding a Troller worm into battle? Cybertronian drillers pale in comparison), Raptors, Phorusrhacidae and even large Therapods in the case of the higher-ranking soldiers and warriors, I’d need to consider entering training to handle a steed at some point. Another thing we used which no one else did; Bohrok, they make for fantastic shock troopers, usually launched via catapult into enemy lines.

Overhead countless T.U.A ships loomed above the camp, like silent sentinels watching day and night. After the situation here was done with, Vapaa’s team would be following us in the Jörmungandr as an escort to the Defiance, with her sister ship in the line, the Vánagandr-Fenris: The Great Wolf, completing the escort. The Titan class ships were so big that they were practically their own cities, and as such crew members and personnel were often referred to by the ship the served on, for instance those serving on the Jörmungandr were known as ‘Jörmunganduns’, and those serving on the Kelenken were known as ‘terror birds. I paused in my musings to lift a green gemstone, most likely an emerald, to my mouth and bite down, rather than shattering my teeth as I expected, it simply broke like a large chunk of hard-boiled candy and my eyes widened in surprise.

“It tastes like apple” I noted

“Nova!” I heard a familiar voice call, I looked around to see spike, now a young drake (equivalent to a teenager), flying over.

“Spike!?” I asked in surprise “what in my mother’s name are you doing here?” he chuckled as he landed next to me.

“heh, Twilight caught wind that you had found an alien plane with, so she sent me to report on it” he then laughed “she  quite the reaction”  

“I bet” I said “she could have just  asked me to send pictures”

“Yeah, but I also wanted to see what this place was like” he responded

“How’s things back home?” I asked.

“business as usual” he said.

“Uh oh” I chuckled “that bad?”

“ha ha” he deadpanned “no. Also, myself and Sweetie bell are kind of…” he trailed off and I gave a knowing smirk

“So, you got yourself a girl” I said. He blushed and glared at me “I’m just messing, I’ve been through exactly the same thing, so has Minion, and Garnet, and Ruby” suddenly I heard the sound of multiple old internal combustion engines, the sound gradually getting louder until a group of bi-planes flew overhead from behind us.

“What in the name of Celestia!” Spike exclaimed. I smiled, recognising the designs and markings instantly; they were just a few of many different types of sapient planes originating from the same world as the sapient tanks.

“Russian PO-2 biplanes, famously used by the ‘Nachthexen’” I said, noting Spike’s confused expression I added “The ‘Night Witches’; a nickname given by the Germans to Russian Night Bomber regiment 588, manned exclusively by Women and called the Night Witches beca…”

“Nova” Spike said, interrupting me “you’re starting to sound like Twilight” he then stood up “Been nice catching up, but I’m gonna go look around”

“Watch out for the dragoons’ steeds” I said as he took off “they can be quite vicious” at that moment I decided it was time to have a look around the dragoons’camp myself, so I slid down the roof of the building and landed on the ground crouching.

*POV 3rd person, Location; The Pit, Terra*

The door at the entrance to the pit blew off its hinges, and two 7 foot tall humanoid figures walked out, blood dripping off their weapons. One turned to the other..

“We need to find a way off this rock” he said “I doubt it will take very long for people to notice our little surprise”

“Yes, brother” the other said “but first, let’s pay the family of a certain human-turned-Alicorn a little visit”

*POV 1st Person Nova*

As I was walking through the Dragoons’ camp, used to stable all the war steeds in preparation for the upcoming battle, I noticed Firestorm in a pen…with multiple 6 foot tall raptors.

“Alright, girls” she said, holding her arms out and standing in a semi crouched position “eyes on me” the raptors slowly walked around her. “Nova, I know you’re there, whatever you do, do not enter this pen”

“What are you doing?” I asked, leaning against the railing “Deinonychus are extremely dangerous”

“They are also extremely intelligent” she retorted, still signalling to the raptors “they are one of the raptor species that didn’t grow sapient after the KT event. I’ve been tasked by the T.U.A. to train them to work like a K.9. Unit, I’ve got them to follow my commands, but they don’t trust me yet…except for one”

“What do you mean?” I asked, she clicked her right hand and all but one of raptors dispersed, said raptor walked up to Firestorm and she stroked it under the chin.

“Lucky for me it’s the alpha female” she said, walking over, the raptor followed, I tried to pet it, only for the raptor to snap at me “careful, she bites”

“No shit” I said “so you’re a raptor handler?”

“Among other things” she said “I also handle the Phorusrhacidae, Gastornithiformes and Pavorgigacidae, to name just one super-group”

“Terror Birds?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yep” she said, chuckling “therapods have got nothing on a full grown Kelenken”

“Don’t remind me” I said, remembering the time I went to the Zebrican plains for a weekend; you’d of thought I was one of the Doctor’s companions with all the running I did, I would have used my Neu-Toa or Alicorn powers but stupid me had locked my form to a human by mistake for an week, with no override. I guess that’s what I get for looking at my own genome to see what I could improve, needless to say, Fantasia gave me a bollocking for it and locked my powers away, something about ‘learning self-respect and appreciating myself as I was’.

I was brought out of my musings by a letter appearing in front of me, I looked at it and soon frowned.

“If you’ll excuse me, sister” I said, wrapping up the scroll “I’m going to go slap a mare before they start a second holocaust”

A watched a Unicorn mare run along a narrow mountain road, some distance behind her a group of ponies, including the former elements of Harmony ran after her. I was watching up from the air, hovering like a bird of prey.

“Alright” I said, angling my body “time to end this” I then pulled my wings close to my body, but not completely folded, and started to dive in a stoop. I used my momentum to push myself in front of the mare and impacted the ground in front of her, kicking up a cloud of dust and blocking her path. I stood up to my full height and stepped out of the crater.

“Surprise, Motherfucker” I said as the dust cleared, causing the chalked-purple unicorn to gasp and take a step back “now, ‘Starlight Glimmer’ what’s this I’ve heard about you starting shit with my niece and her friends?”

Chapter 16

“W-Who are you?” she asked, as the other ponies ran over

“Have you been living under a rock?” I asked, laughing, “I am Prince Nova Corona Solaris Blast, Shepherd of Fire, Draconic Alicorn and brother to Princess Celestia herself” Starlight Glimmer smirked

“Regardless, you are nothing without your cutie mark” she cast a beam of magic, which hit my cutie mark and did…nothing. “What!?” I smirked

“Please dear, I’m flattered, but at least ask me out to dinner first” I said, making Rainbow Dash snicker “And that’s not even a real cutie mark, it’s a tattoo of a city district called Ta-Metru, now what did you say about me being nothing without my cutie mark?” she began to back away.

“Let me tell you a little story of the last time someone tried preaching your kind of equality” I said, advancing on her before butting heads “OVER ELEVEN MILLION INNOCENT PEOPLE WERE MERCILESSLY SLAUGHTERED BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T FIT ONE MAN’S IDEA OF A PERFECT WORLD OF EQUALETY!!! AND THAT DOESN’T EVEN INCLUDE THE 49 MILLION OTHER PEOPLE KILLED IN THE WAR GOING ON AT THE BUCKING TIME AND THE DECADES OF POLITICAL TURMOIL AFTERWARDS!!! NEED I BUCKING GO ON!!!???”

“No” she said at barely a whisper.

“GOOD!!!” I said, before stepping away, the group of ponies that I didn’t recognise were staring at me slack-jawed and I snorted before shutting their jaws with my magic as I walked past “if the wind changes your face’ll stay like that”

“Whoa…” Rainbow said “what’s bitten you?”

“War” I said, not stopping. I noticed Starlight Glimmer slinking away but didn’t say anything, I doubt she would be much trouble after the talk I just gave her “Killing people for a living changes you, I try not to let it affect me, but people like her just…”I trailed off before shaking my head to clear my thoughts “Do you need me anymore? Because we’re in the middle of preparing for a siege”

“Uh…I think we’ll be fine” Twilight said, I smiled.

“I’ll keep in touch and visit as often as I can” I said, before charging up my horn and teleporting away with a bang.

*POV 3rd person*

As the smoke cleared and a glowing red orb shot up into the sky, Rainbow Dash spoke up.

“Well someone’s pissed” she said

“Rainbow!” the others shouted

*POV 3rd Person, Location: Orbit above Kreecherde (Reptaurian Planet)

Minion held a pony-sized beacon in his hands as he floated outside a modified Manticore Gunship; this was the Portal-beacon that would provide up-to date information on the co-ordinates to send back to the sol system, it would soon be replaced by a large gate like the ones orbiting the planets back home.

“Are you done floating around aimlessly?” Boris called, the Neu-Toa of air was hanging otno the outside of the ship and generating a bubble of air that surrounded them “I can’t keep generating air for much longer”

“You’re free to go wait in the ship whilst I get this beacon set up” Minion said as he began typing on an external keypad “I do have adaptive armour, and Nova proved it works in space after…” He trailed off and Boris gave him a sympathetic look.

“He’s still sensitive about it, isn’t he?” the Griffon turned-Neu-Toa asked.

“Yes” Minion said, suddenly the beacon beeped and a light turned green, causing Minion to smile “And we have lift off” he then pressed a button and the Key pad folded away. With a push against the beacon he drifted back towards the Gunship.

“Uh, guys” Glück called over the intercom “you might vant to get back in here und get back to base sharpish, I’ve got a couple of Banshees headed our way about 2 clicks out” Minion glanced towards the front of the Gunship and zoomed in using his scope to see two Banshees approaching at some speed.

“Get in” Minion ordered, before shoving the Neu-Toa of air inside and following after. He slammed the door shut and turned to Glück “Punch it!”

“Jawohl!” She said before jerking the Joystick to one side. Minion and Boris were thrown against the wall of the fuselage as the entire gunship turned and blasted into the atmosphere below. Suddenly the left hand windows flashed green and the entire gunship lurched violently to one side. A series of thuds followed, signifying that the automatic turrets had taken care of the banshee’s

“Vad i det känt av guden var det!?” Boris exclaimed.

“Banshee took out our left engine” Glück said “…And I think zere is a problem with the landing gear” Minion looked down and activated the x-ray scope on his mask and frowned.

“Problem? There’s nothing left” He said “This is going to be a bumpy ride” as they entered the atmosphere flames started to billow out of what remained of the left engine and the entire craft started to shake violently.

“Minion, do you think you can keep an eye on things and make sure nothing falls apart?” Glück asked

“I’ll keep all four eyes open” He said, before glancing at the left engine “Glück, if you don’t shut off the left-hand engine we’ll be in even bigger trouble” Glück shut down the left engine and set the flaps on the left wing to the landing position to increase lift and make up for the loss of power somewhat, the added drag would also slow their descent, nevertheless the engine was still in flames as the descended to about 30 thousand feet.

“I’ve done zee best I can do” She said “but ve’ll have to vait and see if this crate vill hold together for the rest of the trip”

“Best start praying to your gods, Minion” Boris said, grabbing hold of a handrail.

“If this was an old Hilux we wouldn’t need to start praying” Minion muttered. After a tense ten minute Glück began to hear chatter on the radio and began calling for help.

“Mayday, Mayday, Zis is Terran Union dropship November-Tango one, I’ve come under attack by Covenant Banshees and I’ve lost my number 1 engine & landing gear and I’m suffering from an engine fire, requesting immediate assistance!”

“Reading you loud and clear, November-Tango 1” a voice responded over the radio “we’ll send fire ships to escort and bring you home” Soon a pair of old Blenheim Bombers painted in red and yellow banked around and followed the Gunship as the capital, and the field to one side that served as an air force base, came into view.

“We’ll escort you down” one of the pilots said over the radio, before switching the channel to the other fire ship “hose her down” the repurposed turrets spun around and began spraying foam on the engine, dowsing the flames and dispelling the smoke.

“Alright” Glück said “this is vhere things get interesting” and with that, she began to push the gunship down towards the runway…20 feet…15 feet…10 feet…5 feet…1 foot…CRUNCH! The underbelly of the gunship ground into the earth, carving a small trench along the runway and kicking up dirt on both sides. Eventually the gunship ground to a halt and Boris let out a sigh of relief

“Phew” he said, wiping the sweat from his brow “another happy landing”

*POV 1st person Nova*

Two hours later

I was sat in the organ room with Aiden, teaching him the basics of piano, for the purposes of this lesson, I was using a couple of the low down string-based key-boards, rather than the organ based ones, and teaching him through copy and repetition, I would show him a tune, then I would show him each key until he had the basic tune done right.

“Alright” I said “next you need to…” A scroll with Celestia’s seal landing on the keys interrupted me, what caught my attention was the black ribbon, never a good sign. I opened it and began reading.

Dear Prince Nova Blast

It is with deep sorrow that I must inform you of the death of your mother and step father…

I quickly put the letter down.

“Aiden” I said, trying not to show emotion “Your lessons for today are concluded, if you could kindly send your grandmother in here then that would be most appreciated” he quickly nodded and walked out of the room, I resumed opening the letter, beginning to panic, this could not be happening.

…of your mother and step-father; Ailsa Marie Marshal and Christopher Marshal, in an attack on the Nova house-hold, it is believed that Vapaa Juoksija’s brothers are responsible, as shortly before-hand they escaped from the Spherus Magnan containment facility known as the pit.

Please accept my deepest condolences for your loss.

Sincerely, Princess Celestia

P.S. I am so, so sorry for what has happened, the royal guard are doing the best they can find them and bring them to full justice, and I will visit you and your brother when next possible.

I rolled the letter up and placed it on the piano keys, before sighing.

“This can’t be happening” I muttered, shutting my eyes to try and block out the tears “First my Dad, and now…this?” I was stirred from my muttering by Autumn walking in.

“Nova, what’s wrong?” she asked, seeing the tears running down my cheeks, I passed her the letter and after a few moments she gasped before pulling me into a hug “Oh, Nova, I am so sorry” I didn’t say anything, merely buried my head into her shoulder and broke down completely. After god knows how long I heard the door slam open and Minion shout. Causing us both to look over

“Nova!” he shouted, stomping over whilst Vinyl and Aurora tried unsuccessfully to stop him “Where the fuck is Fantasia?”

Chapter 17

What does it matter to you?” I asked.

“She brought you back” he said “she can bring my parents back”

“Our parents” I corrected.

“Oh please” he said “your just a mommy’s-boy around fantasia, you act like mom was never even related to you” I stood up

“Take…that…back” I ordered.

“Make me” he snarled.

“I don’t want to hurt you, brother, but…”

“You are not my brother!” he shouted, I glared at him before flinging him against the wall. Vinyl shouted at me in protest but I shot a glare at her, silencing her.

“Stay out of this” I said quietly, before turning to Minion, who was still held against the wall by my magic  “if you have something to say to me then say it, for all to hear, you know I prefer people speak their mind” he chuckled bitterly

“Ever since…you were reincarnated as that…thing” he spat “you’ve grown more distant from our parents, and extended family as a whole…did you forsake your heritage when you found out you are nothing but the bastard creation of some freakish demi-god whore!?” I growled before teleporting him and myself to the nearest mountain.

“You leave my mother of this!” I shouted, Turning into my Nue-Toa form and pinning him into the snow with my foot.

“NO!” he shouted, turning into his Neu-Toa form and twisting my leg off of him “Because she’s the one that caused you to be like this in the first place”

“I don’t want to fight you, brother” I said “but I will gladly do so to make you see sense”

“I’m going to deck you” he said, his fists crackling with elemental energy “and then I’m going to pound your pretty little head into the mountain side” and with that he charged towards me. just as he went to throw a punch I ducked with unnatural speed, my body seeming to blur into multiple delayed figures as I weaved behind him. I shifted into an Alicorn and bucked him as hard as I can, sending him flying fast enough to brake the sound barrier, sending out an explosive crack that echoed across the entire mountain range.

*POV 3rd Person*

As the Grey Skins marched towards the Reptauria capital they heard a boom ring out, followed by a yell.

“[by the gods]!” the leader exclaimed, watching a grey blur pas overhead.

“[It would seem our enemies are feuding over something]” Taag said, noticing a red and gold shape flying towards the crater the grey one was embedded in.

“[is that a good thing]?” the leader asked.

“[Depends]” Taag said “[on whether you want the entire mountain range to be destroyed or not, we must make more haste to our target]”

*POV 1st Person Nova*

I landed on the edge of the crater and peered inside, Minion was out cold, but seemed to be suffering nothing more than a concussion.

“Sorry, Brother” I said, before lifting him out of the crater and teleporting us back to the ship.

Sometime later I was walking along with my mother.

“I’m sorry, Nova” she said “but I can’t bring your parents back, you were a special case, regardless of what you brother thinks, I can’t just bring anyone back, that is something beyond my abilities” I sighed

“I was afraid of that” I said, we soon made our way to the brig, when Minion was currently being kept. Protectors, Bota Magnan equivalent to Matoran, stood guard at the door with six-shooter power lances that crackled with elemental energy, they saluted as we came to the door before I opened the door with my magic.

“Stay out here” I said “you will not speak a word of what you hear to anyone or anything. Understand?”

“Yes sir!” they said, their accents surprisingly thick for individuals working in the service of the T.U.A.

Myself and my mother walked inside the cell, it was large, and Minion was directly in the center of the room, on his knees with his arms pulled to the side by taught chains. He was also chanting quietly.

“You are the cauldron of wisdom, from which inspiration flows. You are the broad Earth, which gives birth to all life. You are the circling Moon, ruling the tides of oceans and women. You are the endless night sky, filled with numberless stars. You are a grove of birch trees, shining in the forest deeps. You are the Mother of us all, and I look to you in wonder and awe” My mother looked at me before raising an eyebrow. I simply mouthed one word.

“‘Pagan’” I then looked at minion and cleared my throat, two puffs of condensate shot out of exhaust nozzles just below the mouth piece of his mask and he ceased his chanting, but other than that he made no visible reaction “I apologise for the confinements, but with your strength I had to make sure”

“I suppose I should see it as a compliment then” he said, chuckling “you’ve got a mean kick”

“We’re not here to make light conversation” I said “We’re here to talk about what it’s going to take for me to feel safe if I let you run free, because quite frankly, with the way you barged in on me and Autumn, I don’t feel all to safe right about now” he sighed and hung his head.

“I have no excuses for my actions, besides being torn up with grief” he said, smoke jetting out of the nozzles on his mask “nor do I expect your forgiveness, I merely ask that you trust me, one more time”

“Trusting you, I don’t have a problem with, it’s what you said about my Mother” I said.

“I do not expect you to forgive me either, Fantasia” He said sadly “But I only ask one thing of you, can you truly not bring our parents back?” my Mother sighed

“I’m sorry” she said “but there are rules even I have to abide by, and those rules are absolute” Minion nodded and hung his head, sighing as another jet of smoke shot out of the two nozzles on his mask.

“Very well” he said. I tapped a button on my smart-watch and the two shackles holding his arms in place came loose.

“Come on” I said “I want to show you something, we recently found some old blueprints for a Russian super tank…a walker, you interested?” he stood up and smiled.

“you know me” he said, rubbing his wrists

“Go consul with Vinyl and Aurora” I said “Then meet me at the hangar in a couple of hours”

*POV 3rd person*

Above the drone of the engines, Gelphana grumbled for the tenth time.

“I can’t believe it” he complained, sitting on a toolbox, fiddling with a blaster “Nova and his Neu-Toa are preparing for war, and were stuck on an old Lanc’ bomber doing air patrol, this thing’s older than most of the ships in the navy, I feel like we could fall out the sky at any moment. And not only that, but we’re babysitting his childr…whoa!” the entire bomber fell a couple hundred feet

“Sorry about that, chaps” the Lancaster said “after all, I am just an old bomber that could fall out the sky at any moment” Gelphana chuckled nervously.

“Heh, that was a joke” he said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

“Humans built their aircraft better than you give them credit for, Gelphana” Ruby said, she was sat at the tail gun, whilst Garnet was at on the nose gun “and Dad only asked you to come along, he didn’t order you. Besides, if I know anything about you, it’s that you’ll find any reason to complain, even if it’s because your seat’s wobbly”

“It is!” he retorted. Garnet burst out laughing.

“That just proves her point” he said.

“Hey Tal’” Aurora called from the roof mounted turret “Are you sure about this kaitiaki-friend of yours, I’m a bit worroid about him using the bloody wing as an archery post” as she said this she glanced at a jungle protector, stood on the wing with a Gatling bow, similar to those used by the rest of his tribe, except this had ornate blades in the place of energy streams. His armour was clean and shining in, but it still showed signed of heavy use, the emerald armour he was using was chipped and cracked here and there, and the metal armour was dented and scratched, with bare, tarnished metal showing through in places. The Ta-matoran poked his head into the roof turret, his armour was different, now a rich red, and he had recently been rebuilt.

“Hey Kopere!” he called through the coms in his usual Scoltish-esc drawl “how are ye doing out there?”

“Fine, my friend” Kopere replied in something resembling an Irish accent “a bit o’ wind ne’er bothered me”

“Sometimes I think this army is made up of reckless fools more than anything else” Charahk said, the Rahkshi of chameleon powers had until recently been tracking down a band of Skakdi pirates with Krarahk, and the two had formed a duo of sorts. But now they were back and part of Nova’s trackers, adding an extra element of stealth to the team.

“Well, at least they don’t have fear clouding their judgment” said a voice, as a large, red Rahkshi stepped out of the cockpit. Ruby tensed.

“What the buck is a damned Turahk doing on this plane!?” she barked “and furthermore, why wasn’t I informed that you had been making friends, Charahk!?”

“Like it or not, he has been a valuable ally to myself and my brother” Charahk said.

“Is there a problem?” the Turahk asked, Ruby climbed out of her seat and stomped over.

“The problem is that one of you buckers did this to me!” she exclaimed, pointing at her bionic eye.

“Not my problem” the Turahk said, crossing his arms “I’m not a part of that clan, besides, they died out years ago with no explanation”

“Take a wild guess as to who caused that” Gelphana said, sharpening a combat knife, the Turahk looked over and Gelphana pointed at Ruby “her and her lower-Steltian lackey”

“He is not just some lackey” she protested “he’s an old friend”

“Stop it, both of you!” Aurora snapped, poking her head through the hole in the roof “I’m trying to watch out for enemy aircraft and I can’t do that with you three ripping each other’s throats out!”

“Just stay out of my way, Rahkshi” Ruby spat, before going back to the rear gun.

*POV 1st Person Nova*

I was stood on a balcony overlooking a massive forge. A recent addition to the fleet was a class of “forge-ships”, which is exactly what it sounds like. We would have one; the Vulcan, joining our little convoy, bringing the number of ships up to four. The pneumatic hammers pounded white hot metal, forming a rhythmic “clank-hiss clank-hiss” like the ticking of the clock. Minion walked over.

“You wanted to see me?” he asked, I nodded before getting out a hologram and activating it to display a technical drawing, Minion’s eyes widened “where the hell did you find this?”

“Believe it or not, the original technical drawing were found in the skip at the back of a tank museum” I said “so, do you think you could handle being in charge of the project?” he put his hand on my shoulder

“You know me” he said “I would be more than happy to oversee construction”

“Be quick with it” I said “At dawn, we are at war”

*POV 3rd person*

Nightmare Moon stood on top of a balcony in the High-king's castle as the sun set and the twin moons rose from opposite ends of the horizon to take its place. Suddenly she began to sing, her voice carrying on the winds to towns far away, where even enemy troops would hear it and speak of it's sorrow for generations to come.

"Ask not the sun why she sets, why she hides her light away" she closed her eyes, pouring her emotion into her voice "Or why she hides her glowing gaze, when night turns crimson-gold to grey" she took off, letting the winds carry her before aiming for one particular destination.

"For silent falls the guilty sun, as day to dark does turn" her face contorted into a frown "One simple truth, she dare not speak, her light can only blind and burn"

she walked through her quarters on the Defiance, walking towards a candle-lit altar.

"No mercy for the guilty, bring down their lying sun" she stopped and lifted up a plain, bluish-silver helmet, before touching it to her forehead "Blood so silver black by night, upon their faces pale white" she then lowered the helmet onto her head, the rest of her armour materialised to her body.

"Cruel moon bring the end, the dawn will never rise again..."

Chapter 18

*POV 1st Person Nova*

I leapt around the corner of a building as a fuel rod shot past

“What the fuck ever happened to making sure they didn’t enter the fucking city!?” I asked aloud. They had taken us totally by surprise and attacked before we had a chance to finish setting up defences, still, I couldn’t help but admire their tactics ever-so-slightly, gods’ know I would have pulled exactly the same tactic if I were in the enemy’s situation. I peeked around the corner to see two hunters making a mess of the buildings. “Hunters, it always has to be Hunters” I sighed before drawing my swords and combining them into a shield “it’s times like these that I could really do with something like SCP-682” I then drew an arcane assault rifle and snorted.

“I do not get paid enough for this!” I then ran out into the street and lifted my shield just in time to deflect a plasma beam from one of the hunters before charging at them whilst unloading the crystal into the hunters’ armour. As I got close one of them tried to knock me out of the way but I sidestepped before climbing up its shield and onto its back, I then fired round after round into the hunter’s neck before it succumbed and collapsed to the ground dead. Its twin went into a blood frenzy and quickly knocked me through a building. I slowly stood up and ran a check on my vital signs.

“Left pauldron compromised” Glados’ voice droned.

“Glados” I said, stowing my weapons “I need you to redirect 80% of my muscle strength to my arms”

“Another suicidal plan, I presume” she quipped, but the power readings on my HUD changed to display the increase in arm strength all the same.

“It’s not suicidal, at least not for an Alicorn like me,” I said “just really, really stupid”.

“Your quote has been assigned as your epitaph” she replied dryly.

“Always knew I could count on you have faith in my actions” I said, before charging out of the building, my strength might have been mostly diverted, but I was still fast enough to give any Olympian a run for their money. I ran towards the hunter at full speed before punching it in the head, sending it crashing into a building. I heard a growl before it charged out and tried to strike me with its shield. I ducked and weaved around before grabbing its main weapon and forcing it to point at the hunters head. I then damaged a part of the electronics, causing it to charge up with a steadily increasing whine. The Hunter let out a final growl before the fuel rod cannon fired into its head at point blank range, destroying most of its head, neck and shoulders. The Hunter  convulsed before falling to the ground dead. I then began walking away.

“’Toa slayers’ my arse” I said.

“One of the other Toa is attempting to open communications” Glados said “It’s the obnoxious unicorn that listens to electro-audio garbage”

“Patch her through” I said. Suddenly the coms crackled into life, I could hear gunfire and yelling.

“This whole city has gone to shit; myself and Minion are pinned in the market with Sargent Thompson and his team!” Vinyl exclaimed over the intercoms, there was a pause punctuated by static “where the buck is your honour guard, Nova!? We’re getting our plots handed to us by the enemy”

“I’ll try and re-assign them to your area” I said as I found a well-protected spot and brought up a holographic map of the city. Vinyl was at one end, whilst my honour guard and Autumn’s was at completely the other end of the city “it will take some doing, but I should be able to get some of them headed your way, just hang in there for about…10 minutes”

“Ten minutes we can handle” Minion said. “just make sure you have D.C. bring a really effective anti-tank gun”

“Why?”

Booom-WHOOSH…

“THEY HAVE A FUCKING MAUS FITTED WITH A FUCKING RAILGUN; THEY STOLE MY FUCKING WEAPON DESIGN! THEY ARE DEAD FU…” I shut off the comlink.

“Your brother is as eloquent as usual I see” Glados quipped.

“Stow it!” I snapped, before opening up another channel “D.C. do you read me?”

“Reading you loud and clear, honey” I hear her say over the sounds of the battle “what do you need?”

“Can you spare yourself, Surprise, Fireblast, Seastreak and Spellbook?” I asked “Vinyl and Minion are pinned down at the market and there’s an enemy Panzer mk9 calling your names”

“You mean they’re having a party and they didn’t invite us!?” Surprise piped up over the coms “We’ll be over there before you can say Det finns bara krig”

“Reading you loud and clear” I said “Nova out” I stood up and walked back into the street, only to find myself face to face with a wraith. I dived out of the way just as it fired at me.

“Mother fucker!” I shouted as I began to run. I hastily fired a bolt of fire at the covenant tank, only for it to bounce off the purple armour. I heard the sound of rockets overhead, followed by a very distinctive sound.

*ptuuam-boom-boom*

The wraith exploded in a fireball that knocked me off my feet and I heard a metallic clunk as something hit the ground. As I shook my head to clear my thoughts, I could hear mechanical footsteps approaching. I looked over my shoulder to see a figure walking out of the smoke, it was humanoid, and a blue light shone on its chest. I smirked as I stood up.

“What took you so long, Tony?” I asked, dusting off my armour as Tony Stark walked out of the smoke wearing his Iron Man suit “The battle’s already won” he looked around

“Yes, because the fact that there are still millions of aliens crawling around the city just screams ‘victory is ours!’ in gold letters” he said, making a gesture with his hands to create a banner of some kind as he said this.

*POV 3rd person*

Trixie slowely backed away from the squad of covenant as they closed in with their weapons drawn

“Trixie did not sign up for this when she joined the brotherhood” she muttered.

“You, pony-witch” barked an Elite Zealot “you are surrounded. Surrender and we shall make sure your death is quick and painless” Trixie harrumphed indignantly.

“If you think the great and powerful Trixie will come quietly then you have another thing coming” she said, pawing the ground with a forehoof.

“Seize the pony” the zealot ordered. The covenant troops began advancing and Trixie began to count them off with a hoof.

“Hmm, let’s see, one two three four five six seven eight nine…so there’s ten of you and only one of Trixie” she said, pulling out a handkerchief from under her cape, her expression began to sadden “oh, what’s poor Trixie going to do?” She began to sob into the handkerchief, before blowing into it and disappearing in a puff of purple smoke, leaving the covenant troops confused.

“Witchcraft!” exclaimed the Elite, recoiling slightly.

“Oh boys” they heard her call and looked to the source of the call to find her stood on her hind legs on the roof of a building and leaning on a chimney “Maybe you should think twice before trying to kill a former showmare who also happens to be a Makuta!” Her entire body contorted and began to change skin and fur split to reveal pistons and wires, she began to sprout bat-like wings out of her back and her forehooves turned into vicious talon-like hands. Her head began to change, swept-back bat-like ears began to form, and her snout contorted into snarling jaws

“And now for my final act, you’re all going to die horribly” she suddenly said from behind them, holding the Elite zealot’s throat from behind. The other covenant went to fire, but she quickly ran her sharp claws across the zealot’s throat and tittered “Now, now, let’s not be too hasty shall we?” they hesitated.

“If you value your honour” the zealot said “you will kill me and her, I may die here, but I will keep my honour” the readied their weapons and fired, just as the plasma bolts closed in Trixie disappeared, leaving the zealot to get blown to the ground by the barrage of plasma rounds. The covenant troops stared in shock.

“well” said a voice, the troops turned to see a female griffin with purple feather tips lounging on one of the roofs, whilst Trixie stood next to her “looks like we don’t even have to do anything, they’re practically killing each other without our help” Trixie chuckled

“And here Trixie thought they would be a challenge” the former showmare said.

“You know” a male voice said in a distinctive Trottingham accent, as an almost draconic-looking Makuta walked out from a building, before chucking the bloodied helmet of a zealot at the foot of the covenant troops “if I were you them I would consider running. After all, three against ten is hardly fair…on you” Gilda smirked before landing next to Red Dawn and clearing her throat.

“GET LOST!” she roared, the covenant troops quickly fled and Trixie chuckled.

“Trixie is beginning to think this is too easy” the former showmare said.

“Don't get too cocky” Red Dawn said, crossing his arms “we may have power, but we aren’t undefeatable”

Chapter 19

*POV 3rd Person*

Glück banked her gunship around a T.U.N. frigate. All around ships on both sides engaged in side-by-side battles reminiscent of skirmishes between human galleons of the 16th and 17th centuries. She pulled the ship up just in time to miss a dodge a wayward missile curtesy of a hurricane employed in the service of the U.C.A.* locked in a dogfight with a T.U.A.F. Supermarine Spitfire.

“Looks like we’ve flown into the hornets’ nest this time” Garnet said, he was in a Blenheim bomber* flying alongside Glück’s dropship, operating the main turret located on the top of the airframe.

“This battle has gone to shit” Ruby said from the cockpit “If it wasn’t for the titan class ship this battle would be a massacre” as she said this she glanced up at one of the Titan class ships, named Titanoboa, which was facing off against a covenant capital ship. Their guns fired and debris from each ship fell all around the two aircraft.

“We need to get out of this firefight or we’re going to get hit by something!” Ruby shouted. Glück pushed the joystick down, causing the gunship to descend rapidly.

“Hold on” she called “zis is going to be a bumpy ride” The Blenheim bomber followed suit and they began to descend. They had just gotten clear of the battle when Garnet called out.

“Uh…we’ve got company!” suddenly a high-pitched roar filled the skies and two primitive German jetfighters descended upon the two aircraft “Messerschmitt 262s! Take evasive action, now!” Glück pulled the joystick to the left and pushed it down before performing various evasive manoeuvres. A thud sounded out from inside the fuselage as the gunship banked hard to the right and flew directly underneath a ship

“Ye could have warned me!” Gelphana shouted.

“Ich do nicht have time for this!” Glück shouted back, beginning to slip back into her mother tongue “Ich have got bigger problem right now, now you can either stand around complaining, or you can get up in that turret and get him off our tail”

*POV 3rd Person*

A small squad of Elites walked into a dimly lit building, they had chased Some of Nova and Autumn’s Honour guard in here.

“Keep your eyes open for the equine filth, they can’t have gone far” their leader said. From the rafters a Pegasus with long, straight hair swung down, her hind legs hooked on a low hanging beam. In one hoof she held a meat hook. She clamped her free hoof over the mouth of the rear-most elite before pulling him up into the rafters and out of sight with barely any sound. A few moments later the blodied and still twitching corpse of the elite dropped in front of the squad, startling them. Suddenly they heard a giggle that they couldn’t place the source of.

“I see you…” said an almost childlike voice.

“Who’s there!?” the elite’s leader barked

“That’s for me to know and you to find out” the voice sang playfully. “Let’s play a little game, shall we? How about hide and seek. Whoever I find last gets to live” up in the rafters Spellbook turned to Depth Charge.

“Are you sure she can handle them?” he asked.

“There’s a reason she is our assassin” she responded.

Minion jumped behind a half destroyed brick wall just as a heavy tank round streaked overhead, accompanied by a volley of plasma rounds.

“I take it your little plan didn’t work then” Sargent Thompson quipped.

“The fucker’s got a couple of ghosts as support” he said, groaning in frustration “I can’t focus for long enough to fling the tank, and the Ghosts aren’t made out of metal so I can’t fling those either. My powers are useless for now”

“So we’re bucked” Vinyl said.

“Hey!” Thompson exclaimed, “at least you two have so much of a chance at surviving that thing, I’ve got nothing but my assault rifle, what’s that gonna do against that thing?”

The last Elite cowered in a corner; he’d seen things no one should have to witness. His eyes scanned the room, trying to find some sign of that…thing, that demon wearing the skin of a mere pony. He could hear that hellish giggling.

“Hide and seek, hide and seek”  the voice called, suddenly the pony’s head popped down from the rafters not 2 inches from the elite’s face “I see you”

In the darkness of the building, a scream echoed through the many rooms before being suddenly cut short. Up in the rafters, Spellbook was shaking.

“Why the buck do we have her on the team?” he asked. Depth Charge shrugged.

“Eh, she breaks up the monotony” she replied nonchalantly. “you should get used to it soon”

*POV 1st Person Nova*

I was facing off against multiple squads of the enemy forces alongside Boris, Scar and Tony Stark in his Iron Man armour.

“I must say” Stark said, blasting an Elite away with a repulser blast to the chest “this Protosteel armour is incredible”

“Yep” I said, parrying another elite before thrusting my hand into its chest, my arm became incorporeal and past right through, dragging the elite’s soul out with it. The Elite collapsed to the floor and its soul dissipated in a cloud of ectoplasm. I heard a loud thud behind me and before I could even turn around Tony Start went flying back.

“Tony!” I shouted. I heard a chuckle behind me and turned to see Taag ‘Ngreeda walking over.

“It seems fate has let our paths cross once again.” he said, igniting his swords “Neu-Toa scum” he charged towards me

“I won’t let you take this city” I said, charging to meet him, we met half way, and began trading strikes

“Your swordsmanship skills have significantly improved since we last met.” he said.

“Because I’ve been learning from my mother” I said, he suddenly caught me off guard and knocked my swords out of my hands before kicking me across the street. He then walked over and picked me up before applying some form of device to my fetlock, I began to feel myself getting smaller. “What the hell did you…what the!?” my voice was high pitched and…younger

“Merely a simple magical regresser, curtesy of Spiriah. Good luck getting that off any time soon” he said “Now who exactly is the mother of yours, so that I may enjoy hunting her down and slaughtering her”

“Unhand my son!” A voice boomed, before a white and maroon blur knocked Taag away and sent me flying. The impact with the ground knocked the wind out of me and left me gasping for breath. By chance, I had landed near a puddle; I used what energy I had to pull myself towards the puddle, when I looked at my reflection in the water my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. I was merely a foal, no older than ten, my mane was no longer ethereal. My vision blurred and I could feel tears forming in my eyes, why was I getting so worked up about this? I was a Neu-Toa: The Defender of worlds, I didn’t cry over something like this. I could feel anger burning in my chest and I splashed the puddle with a hoof in an attempt to remove the reflection. I heard a thud and I turned to see my Mother levitating Taag by his legs, before flinging him far away “Good riddance, the sangheili scum!” she laid eyes upon me an her expression softened. She calmly began to walk towards me

“Oh, Nova” she said “what did he do to you”

“H-he mentioned a regresser,” I said, holding my foreleg out to show her, she frowned and tried to pull it off with her magic, but a powerful jolt of electricity shot through me, making me cry out if pain, my body convulsed and tears streamed down my eyes “MOM!!!” she dispelled her magic and the electrical discharge immediately stopped, suddenly a hologram sprung forth from the bracelet to reveal Spiriah in some manner of lab coat. My mother rounded on the hologram.

“What did you do to my son!?” she snarled, scaring me.

“Now now, Fantasia, I couldn’t allow your son to go and interfere with my plan”

“Turn me back, NOW!” I squeaked out, Spiriah chuckled.

“Oh, I’m so scared, he mocked “but don’t you worry your sweet little head, the bracelet will come off in a few days and you will regain all of your abilities from before the bracelet was applied, just don’t let it attach to anyone else”

“You spoke of a “plan”” Fantasia said “speak quickly my patience is getting thin”

“That’s for me to know and for you to find out” he said “oh, and one more thing, Nova now has the emotional and verbal capacity of a pre-teen” he the disappeared just before my mother blasted the ground the hologram was stood at with a bolt of magic.

“Dammaz iuwiz!” she exclaimed in a language I didn’t understand, she the sighed and looked at me “Let’s get you back to the ship and safe”

“But I can look after myself!” I protested, she raised an eyebrow and I crumbled under her gaze “never mind” she glanced over to Scar and Boris, who were tending to Stark, they nodded and she nodded back, they could handle things here for a while

“Stay here” she said, changing the channels on her comlink “I shall take your place in command for the remainder of the battle” she then teleported out of the room and left me standing there, I sighed before levitating a table-computer over.

“I way as well do something whilst waiting” I said as I switched the device on

*POV 3rd person*

Blazewing commanded the Jörmungandr, ordering crewmembers about as the ship drew alongside different vessels. At this point in the battle the larger ships were duking it out in the exosphere; right on the edge of space, they had just finished demolishing a covenant frigate when a massive capital cruiser began to approach.

“Is that…?” a crewmember asked, trailing off, Blazewing nodded from his command-chair.

“Song of Re’ribution” he said “which means ‘Mdama ‘imself is ‘ere” he then opened up his comlink to talk to Nova “Nova laddie, you there?” over the sounds of the battle below a female voice came through.

“Nova is unavailable at the moment” Fantasia said “I’m the acting commander in his stead”

“Very well, milady” Blazewing responded, before leaning forward “Now listen lass, the Covenant’s leader is ‘ere and ‘eading right for me ship, so if we can’t push ’em back then expect a world o’ ‘urt”

“Hold him for as long as you can” Fantasia responded “The Wolfpack should be able to handle things up there until I can send a little help”

“Aye aye, milady” Blazewing said, before shutting off the comlink, he then opened the tannoy system, in the armoury Vapaa’s team stopped what they were doing. “Alright lads, we’ve got the covenant’s main flagship ‘eaded towards us, and we are one of the few ships in the vast expanse that we know can pose a semblance of a threat to that monstrosity. Now, we’ve got orders from Fantasia ‘ereself to stall it for as long as we can. Now are we gonna run and ‘ide like yellow belies, or are we gonna show those Covenant Scum just what Terran technology can do?” the cheer that went up could almost be heard outside the ship. Blazewing grinned, this brought him bake to his days of piracy, when he would face off against Griffonic galleons and come out on top through sheer determination alone. Blazewing turned to on of the crewmembers.

“Quartermaster” he ordered “attach a nuclear warhead to a kinetic round and fire the railgun”

“Aye aye, sir!” the cyborg-griffon* said. He began typing out the co-ordinates into the computer and the massive railgun aimed before firing it’s payload with a BOOM! After a millisecond of scilence the space in front of them erupted in a nuclear fireball, obscuring the Song or Retribution.

Chapter 20

*POV 3rd Person*

Minion strained to stand up. The enemy tank had hit their shelter, obliterating it as if it was made of paper. He looked around in a panic searching for Vinyl and Thompson, eventually he found the latter, unconscious, but a scan from his mask determined he hand no more than severe concussion. He soon spotted Vinyl lying unconscious in her pony form a few feet away from Thompson. He made his way over as fast as he could and quickly deployed a bubble shield, he stumbled over to Vinyl and quickly scanned her with his mask, his panicked expression worsened when the scans showed up multiple life threatening injuries, seems she had taken the brunt of the blast.

“Shit” he muttered, before carefully reaching behind her neck and finding a button hidden beneath her mane: this was a manual switch designed for just such a situation so that he could open up a diagnostics of sorts. He pressed on the button and a holographic interface started to project out of her horn. At that moment he heard Thompson stirring “Careful, you have a concussion”

“What happened?” Thompson asked.

“The panzer got lucky” Minion said, beginning to access a diagnostics report “I’ve put up a camo-bubble, the enemy will think we’ve been totally obliterated.

“What are you doing?” Thompson asked.

“Accessing her repair code” he said, typing onto a holographic keyboard “The existing Neu-Toa all received an upgrade of sorts last year, included in this upgrade was an external diagnostics installed for just such an occasion. The only problem is it’s unbelievably difficult to use coherently, even I’m struggling, but, I should be able to kick-start her automated repair program, which was knocked out in the attack” suddenly the hologram started flashing red and a message popped up

“What’s wrong?” Thompson asked, Minion sighed.

“Shrapnel entered her eyes, so now she’s blind…godsdammit”

“Can’t she just get a robotic eye like Ruby?”

“That only works when the optic nerve isn’t damaged, and unfortunately my mask of healing doesn’t work against nerves either”

“So, she’s permanently blind?” Minion typed on the keyboard, trying to find a solution, but none came up.

“Looks like…hang on a minute”

“What?” Thompson asked.

“I’m about to do something naughty” Minion sang, beginning to manually alter a part of the hologram “if I manually increase her other four senses, that can compensate at least partially, her mask of sonar will do the rest. After that we can only hope Sumerki is up for retraining her to fight blind”

“what do you mean?”

“Sumerki is grouchy at the best of times,” Minion said, rubbing the back of his neck before setting Vinyl’s systems to self-repair and closing up the diagnostics “and unreliable at the worst of times, she doesn’t like being a Neu-Toa. However, I do know that Thestrals are trained to fight in total darkness, and she knows better than to piss me off with something like this” he then stood up before picking Vinyl up and cautiously hoisting her over his shoulder

“What do we do now?” Thompson asked, holding his assault rifle at the ready. Minion smirked and held up a remote switch for the camo-shield

“How fast can you run?” he asked, switching off the shield and bolting into nearby building.

Blazewing watched with a sinking feeling as the Covenant flagship; the Song of Retribution, glided out of the nuclear fireball unscathed, it’s flickering shields the only acknowledgment of the warhead ever even detonating

“No way is that thing still working!” a crew member exclaimed as the enemy ship accelerated to glide alongside the Jörmungandr.

“Get this ship turned around” Blazewing said “NOW!”

aboard the song of retribution Jul ‘Mdama sneered whilst conversing with multiple Elites via hologram.

“Defiance ni noru ni wa, modosu tame ni dare o shitte imasu [Board the Defiance, you know who to bring back]” he said.

“Senchō [sir]?” an elite asked. Jul began tapping his claws rhythmically on the armrest.

“Watashi wa karera no hiza ni shinseibakuhatsu shi, kare no Noi  tōa o jisan suru tsumoridesu [I am going to bring Nova Blast and his Neu-Toa to their knees]” he said, clenching his fist. “Watashi wa karera ga jibun no kodomo o kou suru tsumoridashi, wareware wa karera ga oitsuite mimashou shitara, sonogo, watashi wa kare ga watashi ga tsūka shita mono o tsūka suru tsumoridesu [I'm going to make them beg for their children, and then once we've let them caught up, i'm going to make him go through what i went through]”

*POV 1st Person Nova*

I was sat on my bed, trying my best not to think about what was going on outside, suddenly I heard a massive bang and an alarm started blaring, before I had time to react an Elite broke through the door and I found myself frozen with fear as he approached menacingly and picked me up off of the bed and slung me over his shoulder, holding me by my rear legs.

“Let go of me!” I shouted, struggling to get free. He yanked my legs violently, sending pain shooting through my legs.

“You’re lucky the Didact’s hand wants you alive” the Elite grunted, I gasped in shock. As he stepped back out into the hallway a could hear Polaris, Sandstorm and Sunny screaming some distance away, I felt unimaginable rage boiling inside.

“No!” I shouted, my voice surprisingly deep considering the age I’d been regressed to. I began to charge up magic in my horn “you will not HURT THEM!” an aura surrounded me and the bracelet around my wrist exploded. The Elite was thrown away from me as the effects of the bracelet were reversed almost instantly. I shifted into my Neu-Toa form and picked the Elite up by the neck before pinning him to the wall.

“Where are you taking my children?” I growled.

“Didact’s hand…said he’d show you…true heartbreak” the Elite began chuckling before I crushed his neck and flung him to the floor. I began to run after the elites carrying my kids and Sandstorm, but an Elite slapped something on his wrist, causing them to disappear and leaving me to go barrelling through thin air. I slammed my thist into the ground before opening my comlink.

“Mother” I said “Recall, every single crewmember, vehicle and weapon assigned to the Defiance and get back here…NOW!”

“There is no need to…”

“They have my daughters!” I shouted over all the channels, the entire battle seemed to hesitate for a few seconds

“I’ll bring them up as soon as possible” my mother said, before closing the com-link, I opened up a channel with Vapaa.

“Vapaa, you better get your teams’ asses ready,” I said, trying to keep my voice level “I’m assuming direct command of the Wolfpack and I want you ready to leave now” there was a pause before Vapaa finally said.

“yes sir”

“Boris” I said “you better get your tail feathers back to the Defiance, Jul ‘Mdama has both mine and your daughters” the only response I got was an eagle-like shriek that blew the microphone on Boris’ headset. I teleported into the bridge just as Minion teleported on board with Thompson and Vinyl slung over each shoulder.

“Get them to medical bay!” he ordered.

“What happened?” I asked as ponies took the away on stretchers.

“I was a fool” he said “and now Vinyl’s blind and I don’t know how bad Thompson is, I didn’t get the chance to check”

“You can check on them whilst I’m tracking down Jul ‘Mdama” I said, as a series of mass teleports flashed on the planet below and small part of the Covenant fleet performed an unguided slip space jump. “the bastard has Sunny, Polaris and Sandstorm”

“leave some for me then” he said “the only problem is with an unguided jump he could end up gods know where, and us too”

“Nova” my mother said, teleporting in next to a bloodstained Eclipse “everyone assigned to your escort is aboard their respective vessel, as is the ordinance”

“Captain” I said “follow the covenant into that slipspace rupture”

“But sir, we could end up anywhere”

“I don’t have time for this, just do it!” the captain, a Vortixx, sighed before plotting a course for the entire escort, now in formation with the Defiance. A few moments later we began to make our way toward the slip space rupture, soon, I would get my hands on that damned Sangheili scum, and my daughters would be safe.

Chapter 21

*Two Weeks later*

I was stood on the bridge of the Defiance, which was still in slip space after a grand total of a month, and entire month in slipspace; a few things had changed on our escort in the past couple of weeks. Vinyl was now totally blind, but thankfully Sumerki had been able the train her well enough to put up a decent fight as a pony, and don’t even get me started on her skills as a Neu-Toa, Minion claimed she could actually fight better than before. Something else had changed, everyone had stopped aging; the Doctor had appeared on our ship quite by accident at the start of our journey, and whilst he couldn’t get us out of this or help us, muttering something about “wibbly wobbly timey wimey” and galaxies far, far away, he did stick around long enough to catch up (and to discover our renegade Daleks, something he wasn’t too pleased about), before warning us about adverse effects to the aging of certain crew members caused by slip space travel, e then left promising to stop by on Terra to inform them of what had happened, and that he would return when “the time was right”. I was shaken from my musings by Autumn walking over.

“We’ll get them back” I said “this I swear to you” I said, nuzzling her slightly.

“I know” she said “I’m wanting to give ‘Mdama a hiding for taking our children as well”

Your highnesses” the captain said, “The covenant fleet has begun exiting slipspace, and we should be upon them within a few minutes”

“Excellent” I said

[Location: the Song of Retribution]

Sunny sat with her back against the wall, trying to meditate like her grandma Fantasia had taught her, it had allowed Fantasia to communicate with her during their time in slipspace, inside the cell Polaris and Sandstorm were currently asleep, with troubled expressions on their faces. Of the three Sunny Skies was most definitely the calmest and listened the most, so she learnt to meditate quickly. Sunny was shaken out of her trance by footsteps approaching; she slowly opened her eyes to see Jul ‘Mdama walking over.

“We’ll be out of slipspace soon, little one” he said quietly “count these hours closely, for they will be your last”

“My daddy is going to kill you” Sunny said, Jul ‘Mdama snorted.

“Mere threats of frightened child mean nothing to…”

“You think I’m scared?” Sunny asked “this is a 5 star hotel compared to the Rainbow factory, and I say that as someone who survived that place” Jul ‘Mdama said nothing, merely regarded the filly with a look, before walking off. As he entered the bridge an Elite called out.

“[We’re exiting slipspace, sir]!” as the small fleet exited into normal space Jul ‘Mdama’s eyes widened.

*POV 1st Person Nova*

a few minutes later…

The convoy exited slipspace, the air distorting around us as we entered normal space again, none of the stars were familiar, everything was…alien, completely and utterly alien. But that wasn’t the most striking thing, the most striking thing was the alien ships currently engaging with the Covenant fleet and winning

“What the buck are those!?” Garnet exclaimed.

“Trouble” I said, dashing over the communications consol. “This is Prince Nova contacting the Song of Retribution, do you read me?”

“Have you come to gloat and watch us perish in an alien galaxy!?” Jul ‘Mdama exclaimed.

“I am offering assistance!” I retorted, because right now our only chance is to stand together, not only that, but I will not let my daughters and Boris’ die abord your ships”

“Well be quick about it!” ‘Mdama shouted. I shut off communications and opened up communications with my fleet.

“All ships” I said “concentrate your fire…on the Imperial Star Destroyers” spell infused armour piercing rounds began streaking across space considerably faster than the weapons of the Imperial fleet, that was where we had the advantage, they packed a bigger wallop in their guns but we were fast! Their ships, all ten of them, dwarfed most of us, but ours we more manoeuvrable by a considerable margin. There were five ships in my convoy, 3 titan class super heavy destroyers; Jörmungandr, Vanagandr-Fenris and The Kraken, plus The Defiance and finally The Vulcan; a massive ship that dwarfed the Titan class 5-fold, designed for the sole purpose of construction, storage and transport of military ordinance. It was also armed to the teeth with the largest ranged weapons ever built, as well as a considerable number of batteries of meteor-type artillery, massive guns that launched Bohrok at supersonic speeds.

The rounds impacted on the shields of the Imperial fleet just as we cruised alongside the Covenant fleet

“Nova” ‘Mdama called, “the nearest enemy ship is close to destruction, concentrate your fire”

“Noted” I acknowledged, and began ordering my fleet to concentrate all fire on that particular ship. Tie Fighters began flying over towards us and the Covenant responded in-kind with their Banshees. “Their fighters are weak, but they make up for it through sheer numbers, try to overwhelm them. Gunners, I need you to  work alongside the covenant and provide support” I could hear a multitude of voices over the radios as we slowly began to push the imperial forces back, finally their most weakened ship gave out and exploded in a fireball. After that, the Imperial ships began to fall back.

“Keep pressuring them, we are going to let them know that we will not be fucked with!” eventually the enemy fighters withdrew completely and the Star Destroyers jumped into hyperspace, cheers began to rise up on both sides, I hesitantly leaned towards the communications consol. “Now, Jul, about my Daughters”

*A few hours later*

I walked onto a balcony overlooking one of the planets in this galaxy, I heard footsteps approaching and looked over to see Jul ‘Mdama leaning on the railing.

“This truce does not make us allies” he said “I never have been your ally never will be. But, I realise that the only way any of us can get back to our own universe alive is to combine our forces”

“True” I said “I’ll still be beating your arse 6 feet under for what you did, not only for kidnaping mine and Boris’ daughters, but for New Altero”

“Understandable” he conceded “I’d be wanting to do the same if you attacked one of the cities on my world” I chuckled slightly, realising something.

“There is one area I have an advantage over you” I said, he gestured me to go on “I know somewhat of the species and individuals that live in this Universe. Ever hear of Star Wars?” he shook his head “It’s a series of Human films. Learn as much as you can about it, and then start training your troops” He nodded.

“What is our next move, Human?” he asked.

“There’s a rebel group we need to look for, we find them and try and get their help, then, we get back home"